Flashback
by Deleth
Summary: Beast Boy and Raven's son travels back from the future to save not only his parents, but the world from disaster. BB/Rae, a little Star/Rob and Cy/Jinx later. Please Review. Complete!
1. Prologue

Black storm clouds boiled overhead making the sky appear as if it was going to fall on from the heavens onto what was left of humanity below

Flashback

Beast Boy and Raven's son travels back in time to save not only his parents, but the world itself.

BBXRae, RobxStar later with a hint of Cy/jinx

A.N.

I know the prologue is short, its supposed to be.

Chapters will be much longer so prepare for a good read when they are posted

I expect to be posting a chapter every 2 weeks, but that is up for change with out notice as life has a way of being life.

I also haven't written and fan fiction in a really long time as I've been working on original stories but alas, writers block strikes again, and the best way I know of to get rid of writers block is to work on a different story for a while, so here we are.

- Deleth

PS. Please review

Flashback - Prolouge

Black storm clouds boiled overhead making the sky appear as if it was going to fall on from the heavens onto what was left of humanity below. Lightning struck here and there giving the duel effect of briefly lighting up the grey afternoon against ruined earth with the flashes of white, and showing where the Echrid were moving. Between the small slats of what looked like a massive pile of rusted metal and other junk – maybe the leftovers of a junkyard long since abandoned – a pair of violet eyes watched where the beasts that had all but made humanity an extinct species. _It had happened so fast too_ the girl whom those eyes belonged to thought. The Echrid had come only 13 years ago and in that time had reduced the human population from over six billion to maybe a hundred thousand scattered across the world, and it all had started here, in Jump City.

Raven closed her eyes for a moment trying to push down the sorrow that came with thinking of those that had been lost, most the justice league was gone, and every villain had been eliminated as well. But the losses that hurt the most were the ones that were the most recent; her best friend and companion, Cyborg, and the most irreplaceable, her lover Beast Boy.

A single tear fell down Raven's cheek as she remembered how he had died saving both her and their son but she quickly wiped it away, now was not the time for tears or sorrow, now was the time for action.

At least that's what Robin had told them when his tinkering skills had finally finished the time disk that Cyborg had been working on until the Echrid destroyed him. Raven turned from the open slat in the metal shell they lived in and walked access the small room, ducking through an even smaller opening into the 'main room' of the junk bunker that they called home. Robin knelt next to the much smaller boy as he mounted the Flashback Drive to the back of her son's armor. Raven allowed herself a small smile as she looked at her son and Beast Boy's son – Beast Boy had named him Tyler and while that wasn't her favorite name Raven had agreed as well, Tyler looked like a Tyler. He was short for a boy twelve years of age but Raven supposed that was because of lack of a stable food source and his fathers late bloomer genes, standing only an inch shorter than what Beast Boy was and just as thin when the titans were first formed, back when they were teenagers, why did that seem like so long ago? Tyler's other distinguishing features where his dark green hair he inherited from his father, pale skin he had gotten from her, and his eyes were an emerald green like his dad's. Raven sighed as Robin helped him get ready for his mission – he reminded her so much of Beast Boy that at times it made her heart ache from missing him and while she knew that Tyler's mission was going to be very dangerous if he was able to succeed, than he would change this future forever and the world would not be coming to and end as it was right now.

"There." Robin said as he stood up "that should do it, all you have to do to activate it is use the runes your mom made on your armor…whichever ones those are." Robin scratched his head as he glanced over the rune covered armor that Tyler wore most of the time.

"It's the two underneath your left forearm dear." Raven said as she approached her son so glanced at the place that Raven had placed the control runes and smiled, then ran to his mother and hugged her. "Now you remember that this is mission we are sending you on is going to be very, very dangerous, and under no circumstances are you to tell my past self _or_ your father's past self that you are our son. Do you understand?"

"Yes" Tyler sighed, "I don't agree with it but I promise I won't tell."

"Good." Raven smiled and knelt down to wrap her arms around her son, and last link to Beast Boy, "Now listen very carefully Ty. The past we are sending you to is a very different place than what you have grown up in. there are many, many more people in the world you are going back to."

"That's right." Robin chimed in, "And be ready for my past self as well, I was well…to be honest I was a – "

"High strung person" Raven finished for him, not wanting him to swear in front of her child.

"I know." Tyler said, they had gone over this about fifteen times already and he was more than a little exasperated with the adults in his life, "I wont tell past you or past dad that I'm yours I can deal with Robin I wont let Cyborg run tests on my armor I wont play pranks on mom with dad's help and I wont eat too much junk food and I'll brush my teeth every night there happy?" Ty folded his arms at the two grown ups who stood there for a moment then laughed.

The light hearted moment though was cut short when a loud 'Boom' echoed through the small junk bunker and from the tunnel to the right Starfire quickly flew into view.

"My friends they have found us!" She said with more than a little panic in her voice.

"Battlestations!" Robin yelled and ran off to quickly grab some supplies.

"Tyler." Raven said and knelt down to Ty's level again, "Listen to me very carefully, the Echrid have found the bunker." Another loud explosion sounded somewhere outside the bunker to accentuate what Raven said, shaking the underground structure so dust fell from the ceiling, "Activate the flashback drive, Robin has already set it to the right date and time which will give you about three months before the Echrid arrive on earth, find a way to stop them warn the titans." She said as another loud explosion rocked the junk bunker sending Raven and Tyler to the floor, Ty hit the ground hard but rolled back up onto his feet while raven struggled back to hers.

"Activate the Flashback drive Ty!" Robin shouted as he sprinted by with Starfire in tow towards the failing main hatch, "do it now!" Raven added.

Ty felt like he didn't know what to do, the Echrid were destroying his home and if he left now all the people he cared about would most likely die. There was another explosion and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, as Starfire was thrown back from the tunnel her and Robin had just ran into, Echrid came pouring out of the tunnel a moment later as their six legged triangular bodies with square-ish heads that had razor sharp pincers as teeth. Starfire shot a larger than normal flash of green light at the monsters who exploded on impact with her power then she shot into the smoke to help Robin who was still battling the creatures on the other side of the initial wave, surrounded. Raven used her black powers to throw large chunks of rocks from the walls into the creatures one at a time as they broke past Starfire and Robin but Tyler could see what was happening and they were quickly being overwhelmed. Tyler's hand hovered over the runes on his armor that would activate the flashback drive not knowing weather to just activate it and run away or stay and help fight a doomed battle, tears began to roll down his eyes _What do I do?!_ He screamed in his own head.

_Son_ he heard in his mind _mom?!_ He thought back. _I need you to listen carefully, there is nothing left for you or us here, the world is lost and our lives soon will be as well, but you have a chance to change the future and if you succeed we will live again, because this future will have never happened do you understand?_ His mothers voice said in his mind, Tyler didn't want to leave his mom behind to die but knew that she was right, the fight was lost, the world was defeated and there was nothing left here for anyone. With tears in his eyes Ty touched the two runes on the underside of his forearm and instantly the Frisbee shaped flashback drive activated with white light shooting out from the ring in the center. He then focused the power of his demon heritage through the runes on the wrist plates of his armor and blew the whole ceiling upwards and away from the ruined junk bunker then with the flight runes glowing shot quickly into the air and flew as fast as he could towards where the Titans tower used to be.

He had thirty seconds before the flashback drive reached full power and transported him back in time and forced more of his own power into the flight runes to go faster, he had to be as close to the tower as possible or he would get lost. The sounds of swarming insects behind him told him the Echrid were in hot pursuit but he would NOT allow them to catch him, this was too important, this was the fate of the only family he ever knew in his hands, he would not fail them. Then it was there, the ruins of the tower appeared over the mounds of junk and earth but he was still about half a mile away and from the sound of it, the Echrid were gaining on him.

But the would not catch him as he quickly rolled and held both palms flat against the other and when the swarm was in front of him let loose the largest wave of energy he had ever attempted to let go, the swarm was destroyed almost instantly but the exertion from using that much power cost him dearly.

Now without enough power left in him for flight he plummeted back to the earth, a few stray Echrid he had missed close behind…

5

Twisted in the air, turning to fend of the approaching Echrid as they dived at him.

4

The first Echrid reached him as he fell but was moving faster than he, Tyler spun as it went by grabbing its pointy back and kicking its insectoid head clean from the body before letting both fall away.

3

Lightning bolts shot from the clouds to the left and right of Ty as he spun again and sent what little reserve magic he had left in himself into two more Echrid blowing both to pieces at the same time but still leaving one dangerously close.

2

Ty didn't have time to spin this time as the final Echrid stabbed its stingers into his side piercing his armor but activating the emergency protection runes on the inside of the armor sending demon fire lancing through the beast, incinerating it in the same instant leaving only a single singer protruding from his abdomen.

1

The flashback drive activated just before Tyler hit the ground and in an instant he was nothing but a ball of light as lightning and beams of even brighter light expanded outward before collapsing back on itself in a tremendous shockwave that rocked the earth beneath it, and when the dust settled, Ty was gone.


	2. Chapter One: Flashback

Hey I finished the first chapter early! Yay creative zen!

I apologize in advance if this chapter jumps around a lot, beginning any story is hard.

I will probably rewrite the entire chapter eventually anyway because I never like how I start my stories but I am my own worst critic.

Thank you everyone who reviewed the short prologue. I know it wasn't much but I appreciate the feedback it helps keep me going!

Side note: Writing the first chapter got rid of the writers block for my novel, funny that. So now I'm working on two stories…shrug I like multitasking lol

Hope you Enjoy, please review!

-Edited-

Formatted down some of the larger blocks of text, didnt think it was that bad until i read over it myself lol - also changed Raven's home 'world' to dimension or plane, its been a LONG time since i've seen Teen Titans so i may have some of my facts wrong, thanks for the correction

- - - - - - - - -

Flashback Chapter One

-Present Day-

The common room was dark even though it was six in the morning and the sun was already beginning to rise, though one would only know the sun was rising on a day like this out of habit, thick storm clouds shrouded the whole of Jump City from the sun's rays as a steady rain fell from the sky. Inside the common room even felt a little chilly today as the raindrops pit-patted against the window on one side of the tower, driven by the steady wind the storm had brought.

Sitting in the lotus position facing the windows as the rain fell was Raven, were you to walk in on her right now you would think she was meditating but for now, she wasn't – having already done that for about an hour – she simply sat there watching the rain fall. Not many realized that this was the closest thing that raven could call a hobby besides reading, she loved watching the rain fall, loved the sound it made, and loved how peaceful it made her feel.

She sat with her hood down and eyes closed listening to the rain, her head tilted back every so slightly letting her deep violet hair hang loosely to the nape of her neck. Her pale skin almost made her look like a cloud that had become lost from the storm above in the half light that filled the common room. Being the only one who seems to pay attention to the weather in the tower so she knew that this storm was going to hit this morning, and the lack of light would cause everyone but Robin to sleep in a little more.

Robin being the exception as well…he's robin, there is probably like fifteen alarm clocks in his room set to the same time. Raven allowed herself a small smile to this thought as it was probably true.

Lightning suddenly struck somewhere in the ocean, briefly illuminating the common room and surprising raven enough that the remote controls on the coffee table shook for a moment, a few seconds later the sound of distant thunder could be heard. Raven opened her eyes, the weather man said it would rain with a chance of thunder storms and it appeared one was rolling in as another lightning bolt struck somewhere closer, the thunder being only a second or so delayed that time. Raven stood up and continued to stare out the window a moment, she had gotten up to go back to her room but something about this storm was interesting, something was keeping her watching it. She was aware of the door to the common room sliding open and Robin entered, she could tell it was him from the emotions he broadcasted.

"Raven." He said a little surprised to see her up and out of her room, "good morning."

"Good morning." Raven replied keeping her eyes on the sky outside of the tower.

"You're up early." Robin observed as he opened the fridge looking for a snack to tie him over until Cyborg made breakfast.

"That happens sometimes." Raven said in a monotone voice, not really wanting to talk at the moment. The ever perceptive Robin must have gotten the hint because the only reply to that was a grunt as he grabbed a bottle of orange juice, closed the fridge and sat at the table. There was another flash of lightning outside somewhere that lit up the still dim common room that was followed almost immediately by another flash, and another, and another. Now Robin was on his feet as the room began flashing like they were under attack by the paparazzi as he looked out the window and saw where the flashes were coming from – and it was hard to miss, lightning bolts were practically raining down in the sky onto one spot in what looked like the waterfront edge of the industrial district of Jump City.

"There's no thunder…" Robin said when suddenly the flashing came to a head in a brilliant white flash that left the two Titans somewhat blinded just before a tremendous 'BOOM' hit the tower hard enough that the whole building shook from the shockwave.

"There's your thunder." Raven said blinking rapidly to try and get the spots in her eyes to go away, the door to the common room flew open and Cyborg, Starfire, and a half dressed Beast Boy all stumbled into the room.

"What was that?!" Cyborg yelled.

"Dude, you don't have to yell." Beast Boy glared at his friend as he stuck an arm through a sleeve.

"Quiet!" Robin interrupted, "I don't know what that was but I intend think we should find out that was too big of an explosion to miss." Robin was interrupted by the tower alarm going off a moment later, he grumbled, picked up the remote and switched on the TV which disabled the alarm and showed the mayor's desk with a very panicked mayor behind it.

"What on earth was that noise?!" He demanded, "A training exercise gone wrong?!"

"I don't know sir, but we intend to find out." Robin said and looked to the titans, all of whom nodded except Beast Boy, who was having trouble with the zipper in back.

"You mean it wasn't you?" the mayor looked terrified for a moment before screaming, "Were all going to die!" and the screen went blank.

"I believe our mayor is what one might call, a Queen of Drama." Starfire observed.

"Right." Robin tossed the Remote onto the couch, "Cyborg, take the T-car and sweep the streets around the industrial district for anything out of pleace., it looked like that's where the explosion came from. Raven and Beast Boy survey from the air and see what you can find starting at the north side. Starfire and I will start from the southern end." Robin looked them over quickly to make sure they understood before his classic "Titans, GO!" and everyone ran off – Cyborg and Robin and Starfire to the garage and Raven and the now fully dressed Beast Boy to the roof, both of whom quickly took to the air, one as a hawk.

Cyborg, Robin and Starfire arrived and began searching their areas first as Beast Boy and Raven were hampered in their search by the wind and rain. It didn't help that the industrial district was the most run down part of the city making it almost blend in with the clouds and rain in places. Each rooftop from Beast Boy and Raven's view looked almost exactly like the last, just differing in size and shape. As they searched for almost ten minutes with nothing Beast Boy flew down landing lightly on the street and shifted back to his normal form followed by a puzzled Raven landing next to him.

"What are you doing? We can cover more ground from the air." She said, annoyed that she was out in the rain in the first place.

"I smelled something." Beast Boy said as he looked around, trying to place what exactly he smelled, "I cant smell as well as a hawk they have good eyes, not a good nose." He grinned and shifted into a green hound dog. He sniffed the concrete for a moment, then the air, then ran off down the street.

"Of course you smelled something this whole district smells." Raven muttered and flew after him. She was right of course, the combination of industrial waste and leftovers from manufacturing plants gave the whole district its own unique taint and wondered how Beast Boy could pick a single scent from this mess of a city but knew that she should trust in his abilities, they had never failed him in the past.

Beast Boy however was running like he had accidentally sniffed up some drugs, he ran down the street, the right into an alley, then left out of the ally onto a different street which he ran across cutting off a car in the process and left into a different alleyway. He then turned right and sprinted down the alley and back out onto yes another street where se stopped and shifted back to his normal form as Raven caught up to him.

"You know you almost got hit by a car ri" – Raven stopped what she was saying as she looked where Beast Boy was looking. In the middle of what during the day was a heavily used street was a small smoking crater. Both Beast Boy and Raven ran over to the hole, which was slightly larger than beast boy and about a foot deep and looked at the broken road. Raven whipped out her communicator and informed the rest of the team that they had found where the explosion took place and that the crater was smaller than it should be for an explosion that loud, Robin said he and the others would be there as soon as possible and the little screen went blank.

"I don't like this." Beast Boy said as he looked away from the hole in the road to Raven, "Whatever made this whole reeks of death and something else."

"What else?" Raven blinked, there wasn't much that Beast Boy couldn't identify.

"I don't know, but I don't like it." The Changeling said and shifted back to a bloodhound to sniff around the crater some more. But it was Raven who first noticed that red streak in the crater itself and as the rain began to slow to a drizzle from torrents of water that were pouring down before, raven noticed there were several more red streaks leading away from the crater, beast boy sniffing at the one closest to the crater itself.

"Its blood." Best boy said having shifted back to his normal self, Raven simply nodded.

"Looks like it leads away from the place where the impact itself happened, lets check it out." Raven said, "The rest of the team wont be here for a few more minutes."

"Don't worry, The great Beast Boy will protect you from whatever monsters lurk in the rainy streets!" Beast Boy proclaimed as he flexed for the camera he could see in his mind, earning a solid roll of the eyes from Raven before they both began following the trail of blood.

--

Tyler lay in the middle of a small crater while the rain poured down onto him and had to turn his head to avoid drowning in the heavy rainfall. Around him the asphalt and concrete sizzled a bit from the cool water that was pouring onto it but soon stopped as the road itself cooled back to normal temperature. Ty coughed and tried to push himself up to a sitting position, which was probably not the smartest move in the world as the pain from where that last Echrid had bit him lanced through his body. Falling back onto his back he gritted his teeth, he knew he had to get to Titans Tower now or he was done for. While an Echrid's poison was treatable it was still dangerous and would eventually kill him if he did not get it removed from his body.

Gritting his teeth through the pain Ty forced himself to his feet instantly feeling a little nauseous but summoning some last reserve of willpower he was able to keep himself from retching and remain standing at the same time. Taking a deep breath Tyler put one foot forward, than another, and another, then fell back to the road just outside of the crater where he had landed. He groaned from the pain the Echrid bit was causing, maybe the toxins in his system were spreading faster than he thought. Forcing himself to his feet again Tyler drew on his heritage and brought what little magic he had left into the control runes on his armor to reinforce his own failing strength.

But even this technique was only able to get him just past the sidewalk into the brush that was part of another buildings landscaping before his own power gave out and he collapsed again, except this time he did not make any movements to get back up.

So there he was, laying face down as he continued to bleed out from his wound, praying for a miracle. The steady rain coming down on him was the only thing keeping his mind from drifting into the abyss and never coming back. _I can't fail…_he thought weakly, but knew at this point the choice was of failure or success was no longer in his hands. _I won't fail!_ He thought again trying to summon enough willpower to be able to at least turn over, but his body refused to obey him, the poison _was_ moving faster than he thought. But just before he resigned himself to simply die and be done with it he heard something coming from behind him:

"Don't worry, The great Beast Boy will protect you from whatever monsters lurk in the rainy streets!"

Beast boy? Dad?! Maybe if he found him he would be okay after all, there was hope!

Struggling to even move Tyler tried to call out for help but the only thing that came from his throat was garbled words. Tears began to fall from his eyes mixing with the water and mud already on his face, he wanted to call for help but he didn't have the strength – his previous battle leaving him totally and utterly spent. _Common Tyler your stronger than that, you have something left! USE IT!_ His mind screamed at him, _This is not the end and I will not die here!_

"Help!" He cried with the last of his strength, "He…lp…please!" And that day fate would not let him die, Raven heard his plea.

"Beast Boy over here!" She called as she used her powers to move a bush the poor boy had apparently fallen on out of the way. She then pressed a special button that would alert the other titans who were not there yet that there would be injured people.

"Whoa what happened?!" Beast Boy said when he caught up to Raven, seeing a boy laying on the ground covered in a mix of caked on mud and blood in parts, "Heh….help.." he whimpered.

"I don't know." Raven said, "Help me turn him over, careful of his neck."

Beast boy nodded and using techniques they had learned from medical training Robin had made all of them take, were able to turn the boy over onto his back. Raven then put up a shield using her powers over the boy so that the rain would not interfere with his breathing. Raven instictavly tried to use her healing powers on the boy but as soon as her hands touched his armor there was a crackle of electricity and recoiled back a few paces, why had her healing power been repelled? That had never happened before.

"My healing powers wont work for him…apparently." She said with a surprised look.

"Ugh! Where are they, we don't have anything to help him." Beast Boy said and looked back to the road as his pointy ears perked up, "Finally, I'll run and guide them here."

Raven nodded as her teammate took of through the underbrush back to the road, this kid had made it pretty far into the large planter. She looked back to the boy who was still crying and she didn't know why, but she felt the overbearing urge to comfort the child.

_No harm in that_ she thought and kneeled next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Shh…" She said, "We found you now, everything is going to be okay." She said to him and the boy opened his eyes looking right into Ravens. She didn't know why but as soon as she saw his eyes she felt something was oddly out of place with his boy, almost familiar but still out of place. But such thoughts were instantly banished to the backburner of Ravens mind as Cyborg and Starfire came charging through the brush carrying a stretcher followed by Robin and Beast Boy, the latter of which was carrying an emergency supplies back that was kept in the T-car.

"Beast Boy hand me the kit." Robin commanded and after a moment of rummaging through the sack Beast Boy handed Robin a strip of gauze and liquid antiseptic. While Robin was dressing the wound the boy let out another anguished cry from the brief pain the antiseptic has caused but it was needed to clear the wound from infection. The brief cry of pain was like pins into her heart, why did she care so much?

"Robin something is up." Cyborg said suddenly bringing Raven back to reality, "Something is in him my sensors cant tell if it's poison or what. We need to get him to the tower fast or we're going to lose him."

"Right, Raven Do you think you can teleport yourself Cyborg and the boy to the Tower?" Robin asked knowing she could.

"Easily." She blinked.

"Do it, the rest of us will meet you back there." Robin said. Raven simply gave a nod as blackness engulfed the three and an instant later they were gone.

In the tower medical bay that same moment Raven, Cyborg and the injured boy appeared with the boy being softly set onto one of the beds. Cyborg went to work quickly, as Raven tried to put a few vital sensors onto the boy but found the only place that was not covered in armor was the boy's head and the place on his side where something had punctured through the rune covered armor itself.

"Forget the sensors for now, we have to figure out what this poison is or this kid is doomed." Cyborg said as the boy began to squirm around.

"Echrid…they're coming…Mother!" Raven levitated a sedative from the table right into the boy's neck and almost instantly he calmed down. "He's beginning to hallucinate." She stated as she studied his armor, why was it covered with runes?

"Common!" Cyborg said in the background as he hit one of the machines that was scanning the boy's blood, across its screen was a big 'unknown' in red letters and Cyborg did not want to have someone die on him, especially a child as young looking as this one.

While she knew she should be helping Cyborg try to sort out what was killing the young boy her eyes kept being drawn back to the runes on the boy's armor. Then suddenly she saw it, one of the runes on his chest plate she recognized immediately as the Azarathian symbol of life.

"Holy…" Raven didn't even know what to say, the symbol was defiantly one from Azarath but how could that be? "Cyborg I think I know how to heal him."

"What?" he blinked, now was not the time for indecision and his machines were not coming up with anything. So Raven must have found something significant, "what have you got?" he said.

"I don't know how and I don't know what all of them mean but these symbols all over his armor are Azarathian Runes. And this one here on his chest plate means life. I think if I focus my healing power into that symbol it will help heal him, when I tried earlier it didn't work and this might be why." Raven said and held one hand over the rune and looked to Cyborg, who nodded to let her know that he had her back in case something bad happened.

Raven closed her eyes and concentrated, a moment later her hand began to give off a bluish glow that spread over her fingers and palm and once the healing energy had reached its peak, she opened her eyes and placed her hand over the life run on the boy's armor. Instantly there was the feeling of something being forcibly sucked out of her, as the rune charged with the healing energy and distributed it across the armor in a web like pattern.

Cyborg watched closely as the boy's wounds seeped a clear liquid for a few seconds before closing up entirely leaving only a small scar which was covered by the armor itself a moment later. The healing webs then flew across the boy's body seeking another wound to heal and when none was found the power sped back to the life rune under Raven's hand giving all the excess power back to the owner – causing Raven to recoil back a few paces for the second time today only this time Cyborg was there to catch her – She caught her breath for a moment before realizing that healing a severe wound on that boy only took not even one fourth of the power she would normally have to use to heal a simple bruise on any of her other team mates. Something was defiantly different about this boy.

"Are you okay?" Cyborg asked, still hold onto Raven's shoulders.

"Yes." She said, "But something is defiantly different about this child. It took almost nothing to heal him completely and then returned the extra energy back to me." Raven seemed baffled by what had happened.

"Well, according to my scanners whatever was poisoning him isn't in his body anymore so whatever you did, it worked." Cyborg smiled and closed the panel on his arm.

"But that's the thing, it worked too well, I'm not that talented of a healer and that rune on his chest…" Raven paused, the rune was no longer on his chest, and instead it had been replaced with just the dark silver armor, various other runes around where it was whose meaning was unknown to her. "Is no longer there…" she said now completely confused.

But the facts where there, whatever Ravens power had done with that armor the runes had reacted and multiplied the power almost three times. The proof was in the boy himself as his almost white skin was now colored grayer like her skin, and his green hair was even clean of the mud that was stuck in it from before.

"Something is not right here." She said, "I need to go look up the meaning of these runes, can you please scan his armor and forward the image to the television in my room?" she asked and Cyborg nodded, he knew that only Raven would know what those runes meant anyway so no one else except maybe Robin would care.

Speaking of which.

A minute or two after Raven had left the medical bay Robin, Beast Boy, and Starfire all came bursting through the door.

"Is he alright?" Robin asked.

"Yes, yes." Cyborg laughed, "He's fine, whoever he is. He's also wearing armor that raven thinks may be from her home planet or something. I'm going to do a deep scan of it in a moment for her and send her what it finds so she can study it."  
"Umm, don't you think that kid will mind if you just start scanning him?" Beast Boy pointed out.

"Probably but Raven gave him a sedative before she healed him so he'll be out for ohh…" Cyborg picked up the empty syringe and looked at the side of the tube. "Another three to four hours at least."

"So the strange child will be okay?" Starfire asked.

"Yeah he should be fine later on." Cyborg smile and turned to assemble his scanning equipment.

"Glorious!" Starfire cheered, "I would hate for one so young to fall into the void of Glonthalark."

Everybody stopped for a moment to try and process what Starfire had said before Robin saved them with a, "Yeah me too." And they both walked out of the room as Starfire rambled on about her home planets customs.

Beast boy however stayed behind with Cyborg in the Medical Bay staring at the unconscious boy on the table. He just couldn't shake the feeling that he should know who this boy is. Now he had green hair just like Beast Boy, which he thought was awesome but the rest of his features were completely different. _Obviously dolt it's not like your related to him or anything._ He chastised himself in his head for thinking on that low of a level.

"What's up BB?" Cyborg said getting a surprised squeak out of Beast Boy who had forgotten that he was there.

"Oh nothing man." He played it cool, "Just weird seeing someone so young get so hurt I guess, it's not something I'm used to. Any idea what did this to him?"

"Not yet that's part of the reason why I'm going to do a deep scan of his armor, might give a clue or two." Cyborg said as he lifted the scanning unit from its drawer and set it on the rails on either side of the bed. With a flick of a switch the machine hummed to live as many different buttons and screens lit up on it, Cyborg then began the process of calibrating the machine to scan only the boy's armor and not any deeper – he was after all a respecter of the privacy of strangers.

"Just between you and me man, I hope I'm never used to seeing people that hurt, especially kids like this." Cyborg said as he flicked switches here and there, watching the main screen till he got the result he wanted.

"Me neither man." Beast Boy shook his head, "Hey what are all these weirdly cool markings on his armor?"

"Don't know, Raven is looking into that as they are apparently some sort of markings from her home Dimension, Azar I think it's called." Cyborg said while turning a knob ever so slowly to the left.

"What?" Beast Boy blinked, "Wasn't that like blown up by Trigon or something?"

"Something like that, I cant remember exactly what Raven told us back when all that Demon stuff went down." Cyborg chuckled.

"Huh, Raven's in her room then I suppose?" Beast Boy said as he slipped from the room.

"Yes but don't bother her." Cyborg said in a I-know-your-not-going-to-listen-to-me-anyway sort of tone but the only one who heard him was the walls, Beast Boy had already left.

Beast Boy walked briskly down the halls of the tower with one question on his mind, who was this boy and why did he seem familiar? Okay well two questions; let's be honest lots of questions – like how come whenever he ordered a vegetarian pizza the stupid heads at the pizza joint always put sausage on it?! – But the first two were the only ones that mattered to him right now. Making it to Ravens door Beast Boy stood in front of it for a moment, he knew that if he entered without knocking that Raven would be upset and probably throw him out against the opposite wall.

Then again if he knocked he knew that she would either not answer the door at all until he pestered her long enough that she would open the door just long enough to throw him against the aforementioned wall again before closing the door. Or she would just glare at him and close the door again. Either way he thought it would be best if he just knocked on the door as that option had the smallest chance of him being thrown out the window. But just before he knocked on her door it slid open to reveal Raven who was already half glaring at him, this was not good.

"What do you want?" Raven monotonely asked.

"Eh-heh…how did you know I was here?" Beast Boy grinned stupidly.

"I'm an Empath Beast Boy that means I can sense people emotions and you have the emotional signature nuclear explosion." She stated, but didn't get the response she wanted as Beast Boy's grin grew even wider.

"You just made a joke!" He exclaimed, "And it was _funny_!"

Raven opened her mouth to say something but just closed it again because after thinking a moment about it, she knew Beast Boy was right.

Drats.

"Dude this is a milestone for you! we should call the mayor and declare it Raven made a joke day! All government employees can have the day off! In fact everyone gets the day off! And we'll have a parade and-

"BEAST BOY!" Raven shouted silencing the little green changeling immediately. "What do you want?"

"Eh-heh." He squeaked, "I was just wondering if you've found anything out about that boy yet? Cyborg said that the strange markings on his armor were from your home dimension."

"Cyborg heard wrong." Raven said immediately, she hated lying to her friends, but in this instance she made an exception as she didn't want to talk about Azar at the moment.

"Err…ok then." Beast boy rubbed the back of his head, unsure what to say now, "So is there anything I can do to help?"

Raven blinked, was Beast Boy actually offering help? This was something she wasn't expecting. Should she let him help her look for the meanings of the runes?

"Err…" Raven stammered, "No thanks…I'm fine." She lied and quickly shut the door in his face.

Beast Boy stood there a moment longer a little more confused than when he had arrived, and then shook his head and walked back to the common room to play games.

Raven meanwhile leaned against her locked door for a moment while she sorted out her thoughts. Why had Beast Boy come to help her? More importantly was why had she refused his help? She then could not come up with a valid reason why she had refused to let him help her so she began to list off the reasons Beast Boy was not good help; firstly he knew nothing about Azarathian runes or how they worked, secondly he would not even begin to know where to look in Raven's vast collection of books for any kind of answer, thirdly he would probably get distracted by something shiny and leave, and finally he would be a distraction to her with his personality and good looks.

Raven nodded to herself and took a step forward but froze in mid stride as all of the traffic that were the thoughts in her head came screeching to a halt. Had she just thought that Beast Boy was good looking? Somewhere in the back of her head she could hear her emotions Happy and Affection giggling, note to file: punish happy and affection.

A beeping from the small flat panel TV Raven had bought a few months back told her that Cyborg had finished scanning the boy's armor and the results were waiting in her email inbox. Robin had questioned why she wanted her own TV back when she had bought it and she justified it by telling him she wanted to use it as a larger computer screen, which was half true. Using her powers to manipulate the computer Raven opened up her inbox and then the images from Cyborg's scan of the boy's armor but wasn't ready for what she found.

The armor that boy was wearing looked to be a combination of technology and magic – the metal itself having only a few mechanical parts with the majority of the armor being covered in runes. There were even some runes hidden in between the sheets of metal and inlaid into the metal itself in some parts. There could be no doubt about it this armor was not normal and neither was this boy, but while she was flipping through the images she suddenly stopped as one rune that was inlaid into the armor displayed on the screen in a computer drawn green wire mesh.

Using her powers she snuffed what little lights were on in her room out and stared open mouthed at the rune on the screen making sure she was seeing it right. The rune itself was cut into the inside of the boy's chest plate right over his heart and was vaguely circular in shape, to parallel lines inside the circle went from top to bottom with just enough space between them for the three characters that had caught her eye in the first place.

_Azarath_ on top

_Metrion _in the middle

_Zinthos_ on the bottom

_Holy Moses_. Raven thought, the boy not only was wearing specialized Azarathian armor, but if her translation of those symbols were accurate. No he couldn't have powers like hers it wasn't possible. No one else in the universe had powers like hers because she had never met anyone else who was part demon, half demon more specifically. This just shouldn't be possible unless this was some sort of plot by Trigon in an attempt to come back to earth and exact his revenge. But no, she had banished him so completely he could not come back and she knew that – nothing was making any sense anymore. Another half -Demon in town? Raven just couldn't swallow that for some reason, she needed to talk to somebody, and she needed to tell the others about this…now.

Sometimes having control over magic was a great blessing as Raven simply grabbed her laptop and phased through the ceiling appearing in the middle of the common room. Anyone except those who knew Raven would have been scared about the fact that she suddenly appeared from a black portal in the floor but in the Titans home this was a normal occurrence. She looked around and spotted Beast Boy enthralled in a video game of some kind, Robin and Starfire were sitting at the table talking to each other seemingly unaware of the world around them and Cyborg was in the kitchen making a ham and ham and beef and ham and chicken and ham and cheese and ham sandwich. Cyborg was also the only one who noticed Raven appear and gave her a friendly wave and hello.

"Hey," She responded, "Shouldn't someone be watching the kid we found?"

"Nah" Cyborg said as he took a bite from his monster sandwich, "That sedative you gave him will keep him out for a few hours. Besides I got him on my arm." He grinned and flipped open his arm panel to show a little screen that was a camera view from the top of the medical bay and a perfect view of the kid.

"I really think someone should be guarding him." Raven said again with a little more fervor in her tone; Robin did not miss this as he knew Raven had been studying the armor.

"Raven, what did you find?" He said after holding a hand up so Starfire would stop talking as well, even Beast Boy paused the game he was playing to look back.

"Nothing good." She said and held a hand out to the massive TV on the wall, a moment later the wires to the Game Station unplugged themselves from the back of the TV rolling up neatly on the floor under the wall mounted screen and Raven's lap top floated over landing on the floor next to the TV. Wires then shot out from the laptop plugging into the right outlets and a minute or so later, the pictures from scanned armor appeared on the screen. Raven sat on the couch and hit the arrow key on the keyboard to flip through the pictures until she got to the one she was looking for, the symbols of her mantra and stared at them for a minute still unable to believe what she was looking at.

"What is it that has caused such great alarm?" Starfire asked after some time had past.

Raven sighed knowing she should have thought of some way to explain the foundations of her powers to her friends without having to open herself up too much, there was still a lot she wanted to remain hidden about herself.

"Basicly," Raven started, "This rune on the inside of his armor means he potentially has the same powers as I do." She let that sink in for a moment as her friends eyes all stared at the rune then back at her, "Those three symbols in the middle are what made it obvious, the top one is 'Azarath' the middle 'Metrion' the final 'Zinthos'. The whole rune itself would be designed to act as a conduit for the wearers power, focusing it for much more controlled or powerfull use."

"So he controls his power through the symbols on his armor?" Robin asked.

"Mostly yes, _If_ his powers function like mine the runes allow him to control his power directly through the runes across him. I've only read about this being done with users of other kinds of magic and never heard or read about this technique being used to control demon magic, usually its used with elemental magic's and such." Raven said, she was being honest about that part she only had ever read about it being used with any form of magic but her own – demon magic she assumed was too volatile to be used through those techniques. "We need to know if this kid is human." She finished.

"What else could he be?" Beast boy asked, a little confused.

"Yeah." Cyborg chimed in, "If he is human he could potentially be form Azarath right?"

Raven nodded

"And if he's not human then…" Robin looked to Raven.

Raven took a deep breath to calm her now frayed nerves, it was bad enough they were all talking about her destroyed home plane but now it was beginning to delve into subjects she would just as soon leave alone.

"The Azarathians were a race of superstitious folk, psychics, and some magicians, but any magic that was allowed was celestial in nature, using positive energy. My magic, because of well…what I am," she said a little uncomfortably, "is Negative energy and those words aren't just words, they are words that help me control my power because of the power they carry. This Boy's armor is apparently imbued with the same words which must bean his power is similar to mine."

Raven looked over her friends and saw Robin and Cyborg both nodding, as they completely understood while Starfire and Beast Boy both looked completely lost. Raven sighed as she was afraid she might have gone a little overboard with her explanation and tried again.

"If this boy uses the same powers I use," she said a little slower not only for her friends benefit but so she might believe it as well "This boy may be part demon as well."

She let that sink in for a few minutes while she gauged her friend's reactions. Robin as she had predicted showed nothing of what he was feeling, Cyborg looked like a mixture of concern and something else. Starfire was trying to figure out what this meant for the team if there was another demon in town and Beast Boy was…staring out the window at the ocean. Raven felt more than a little miffed about the fact that he was ignoring something potentially so important when the green changeling turned back to the group and asked, "Does anyone else get a weird feeling around that kid? Like you should know who he is already but you don't or something, I swear I'm having De-ja-vu or something."

All the Titans just looked at him and shook their heads, including Raven even though what he just described was exactly how she felt when she looked at the kid, but the other Titans, Beast Boy included did not need to know about that. However the fact that he was feeling the same thing she felt was fairly significant and as en empathy she could feel the waves of confusion emanating from him strongly, mixing with her own and making her feel like there was nothing that could be done to try and solve the puzzle this kid was becoming.

"I want Cyborg to draw some blood and see what this boy is." Raven said suddenly to Robin, knowing that it would take his approval to do something like that to a stranger who was knocked out.

"I don't know Raven, the kid doesn't seem like he's going to be any kind of a threat." Robin offered.

"What proof do you have that he isn't a threat?" she countered.

"What proof do you have that he is?" Robin parried, "I say we wait till he wakes up and ask the kid ourselves." And with that riposte attack Ravens argument was cut to ribbons.

"Whatever." Raven said and in and instant both herself and laptop phased back through the floor and were gone, leaving just some wires hanging form the TV.

"What is wrong with friend Raven?" Starfire asked, concerned that one of their team was upset.

"I don't know." Cyborg answered for Robin.

"She's probably just grumpy because she had to talk to us about herself and her powers, she hates talking abut herself common guys you should know that." Beast Boy said berating his comrades a bit for not knowing anything about each other.

Robin perked his eyebrow, "Since when are you the expert on what people are feeling?"

"I never said I was, I just happen to be more perceptive than you think I am." Beast Boy stuck his nose in the air and marched to the common room door, "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to bed."

"Its seven thirty in the morning." Cyborg sweat dropped.

"I know! I'm Tired!" beast Boy shouted and walked through the opening which closed behind him leaving the other three Titans standing there.

"I swear having another part demon in town might make things more normal." Cyborg laughed.

"Why would that make it more normal?" Starfire asked innocently.

"Err…" Cyborg had to change the subject rather than explain a joke so, "Who wants pancakes?!" He grinned as Starfire said shouted "Me me me!" and Robin gave a thumbs up. Robin then switched on the TV, changed it to a news station, and glanced out the window, the sky was still an ominous dark grey, but at least the rain had stopped for now.

--

_Tyler swam through a sea of apprehension, confusion and guilt in his mind. He had blacked out shortly after the Flashback Drive had stopped and couldn't really remember the jump itself. He remembered the Echrid and fighting so hard to keep them away that he used up what strength he had and even took a pretty bad hit to the side but was able to successfully make the jump back in time._

_Or did he? At first he had relished in his small victory of getting back to the past but then after passing out he remembered seeing his mother come to him, she looked slightly different than he remembered but it was defiantly his mother. He also remembered feeling her healing touch flow through is armor repairing his body and the armor itself but knew only his mother from the present knew how to do that not his mother from the past._

_Maybe the Flashback Drive failed; maybe his mother had somehow survived the coming onslaught of Echrid and came to save him after the Flashback drive dropped him back on the ground. He tried to will himself back to consciousness but didn't have the strength left in him, and was forced to resign himself to floating through a sea of uneasiness and indecision, Praying that he would wake up soon._


	3. Chapter 2: Forewarnings

I don't own Teen Titans. If I did, this would be a movie.

Good news! I can solve a Rubik's Cube now!

Better news! Chapter two is done!

Sucky news! My wife Sprained her ankle!

A lot's happened these last few weeks, been writing like mad because after chapter one was posted I was on vacation and didn't write much on any of my projects lol, trying to get caught up now.

I really Tried to make this chapter more reader friendly as well, Im used to writing in novel format which means I just let my imagination loose and write, write, write, been a while since I've done fanfiction and the format is a little different. ;)

On a personal note any of you peoples play or heard of a game called EvE online? Its very much fun and I'm just curious.

Thank you everyone for the reviews and even the critiques, I really appreciate it all so thank you for reviewing. Please keep it up :D

IMPORTANT NOTE regarding the dates this story takes place, I'm not sure if any real dates are mentioned in the series so here we are, takes place when it takes place.

Also I don't care what NASA says, Pluto is a planet.

I'm getting long winded.

Enjoy!

Edited for spelling, posted it fast hehe.

--

Flashback Chapter Two: Forewarnings

--

Space, cold and empty – a vast void of nothingness spanning billions of light years from solar system to solar system creating a timeless backdrop of stars, and almost as old as space itself was a legendary race known only as the Echrid. They had existed for countless eons in the universe seeing themselves as the custodians of space, keeping the population of other inferior species, but everywhere the Echrid went the planets and populations met with the same fate…total annihilation.

The last world the Echrid had conquered had lasted through many generations of drones and soldiers, but as every planet, it eventually ran out of resources to consume and the Echrid mother ship had gathered its children and left the once rich planet a dry cracked husk of dirt floating in space.

But now, the hive mind that controlled the entirety of the Echrid race had found a new planet through its deep space scans, its solar system that had many resource rich planets, mainly the controlling mind of the Echrid had discovered that a planets hot magma that was needed to fuel the mother ship was abundant in this system, but mostly so on the third planet from the system's sun.

Now, just past the planet Pluto space itself began to distort almost as if there was a cloud of heat and atmosphere there, then suddenly the head lit up into a bright green portal that exploded on all sides and when the light dimmed, a massive ship was sitting there in space.

The ship itself resembled a massive golf tee whose large end was convex instead of concave, with four curved spikes on its edge that ran from the larger front of the ship about a quarter of the way down its hull. The mind of the Echrid knew it could not jump any farther into the solar system than this because it would risk colliding with the asteroid belt or a planet, but distance did not matter.

Firing its conventional thrusters the mind of the Echrid knew that it would still reach earth in about three of the planets months time, its first scouts had provided the mind with much information but there was still much it was lacking in knowledge about the race that lived on the surface.

On smooth front of the massive ship a small port opened up from what seemed like the skin of the ship itself and small, dart-like ship flew out of the opening like a missile headed for the third planet from the sun, the scout ship would arrive in a matter of days and the scouts on board would then activate to explore the planet further.

_It will not be long before we can feed once more my children, and our hive will become even stronger. _The controlling hive mind said to its minions as the mother ship slowly flew through space towards Earth.

- - -

Beast Boy tossed and turned in his bed as his mind floated through a dreamless sleep; no matter what he did he just couldn't get comfortable or calm his mind down. Were it later in the day he would have just rotted a few brain cells away by playing a game with Cyborg for a few hours but it was still only nine thirty in the morning and he didn't want to get up quite yet. Sighing, Beast Boy opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling from the top of his bunk bed, the room was dark but he could tell it was day time now from the thin beams of light that were sneaking around the heavy curtains then across the room. For some reason he could not seem to shake that odd familiarity about that boy they had found.

It wasn't like he thought he might be related to him or anything but there was defiantly something familiar about the child, almost as if Beast Boy had met him before in another life or time. _Wow that's some pretty deep thinking there BB._ He thought, _and maybe if the moon were made of cheese there wouldn't be a shortage of tofu in china._ He added – it wasn't like Beast Boy wasn't capable of deep thinking by any means, in fact he was a lot deeper of a thinker than most of his team thought was capable he just knew that there wasn't any way that this boy should seem familiar to him and yet here he was.

Sitting up he finally resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to get any more sleep today and hopped off of his bunk bed, then walked over to the window and drew the curtains back filling the messy room with the glorious morning light. His room was a mess by any standards but he liked it that way, where others saw chaos the more animal side of the changing was comforted by having his possessions strewn about the room. It gave it the feel of a den or lair rather than a room suspended in the air in a building, and that was good enough for him.

Crossing his room he left the mess as it was and walked out into the hallway only to be instantly greeted by the smell of Cyborg cooking dead animals for breakfast. While he would never eat meat again himself he still tried to respect the fact that most the world was not vegetarian even though he still had to give his best friend a hard time about it. Beast Boy stood in the hall a moment before deciding he would rather go check on the boy they had found instead of trying to talk Cyborg into making tofu pancakes.

Taking the elevator to the next floor down Beast Boy walked down the hallway to the open medical bay doors, waltzed on through and there he was, the cause of why Beast Boy couldn't sleep. The changeling looked the boy on the table over, his hair was almost the same color as Beast Boy's own, just a little lighter but his skin was a pale gray color instead of the dark green Beast Boy proudly wore. He wondered for a moment if that's what he might look like if he were a little more normal but threw that thought away, nothing was going to change the way Beast Boy looked he knew that and refused to let his thoughts dwell in that place.

Looking at the boy however brought back those feelings of familiarity and that was something Beast Boy was hoping to figure out. Looking the boy over again he _knew _he had never seen him before anywhere, he didn't even know the poor boy's name. So why did he feel like he should? Was he missing something? No certainly not, or something.

Beast Boy's thoughts began to scatter as his tummy rumbled telling him that if he did not feed himself his brain would shut down more than it already had.

"What are you doing here?" A Voice said behind him making him screech and jump a few paces away.

"Raven! How long have you been standing there?" Beast Boy said with one hand over his poor heart and a quite shocked look on his face, which earned a smirk from Raven.

"I've been standing here the whole time." She said, "You just didn't see me when you walked in."

"Right…" Beast Boy said, he was always a little weirded out at the fact that his animal senses and instincts could not pick up Raven when she phased in and out of rooms, but at the same time he thought it was cool.

"Wait a second if you were here already what are _you_ doing here?" Beast Boy said in a triumphant bit of deductive reasoning.

"I'm guarding the boy." She lied quickly, she had been standing there when the changeling had walked in and he honestly didn't see her but she didn't want him to know why she had come to see the unconscious child. He would probably just make fun of the fact that she was struggling to figure out why she felt so tied to this boy she didn't even know and when Beast Boy had come in, she felt some similar confusion from him but didn't say anything.

"Right, guarding the boy in the most secure building in jump city." Beast Boy saw through her lie easily, "wow did I sound like Cyborg just then?" he asked himself out loud.

Raven gawked for a moment while Beast Boy had a small conversation with himself about sounding too much like his friends. Had he just looked right through her lie like there were neon signs around her flashing 'liar'? Gathering herself Raven resumed her emotionless posture just before the changeling turned back to her.

"So what _are _you doing here?" He asked.

Raven thought for a moment, could she trust him with the real reason why she came here? He, after all was the most mischievous and immature of the group and when trusted with sensitive information. However to counter the argument in her head Happy, Wisdom and Knowledge all helped in reminding her that he was also the only one on the Team that treated her like a real person, always trying to get her involved in what was going on, even if it was a game of stank ball – the last of which she had won hands down when she pummeled both Beast Boy and Cyborg with a magically propelled ball of socks – maybe Beast Boy deserved a chance to prove he could be trustworthy with her.

"I don't know why I'm here." She said finally, he might deserve a chance to prove himself to her but now was not the time, "So are you going to answer my question?"

"Why should I? You didn't answer mine." Beast Boy folded his arms indignantly.

"Yes I did, I said I don't know why I'm here." Raven protested, it was a good answer wasn't it?

"Well maybe I don't know why _I'm_ here." Beast Boy countered and looked away like he was insulted.

"_Fine_!" She said wanting to avoid arguing with him right now, "You tell me then I might tell you why I'm here okay?"

"Fine!" Beast Boy spat back then turned and glanced at the boy again the chance for to actually get the hear about Raven was too good to pass up, " I'm here because ever since we found this kid I've been feeling some sort of weird…something. I don't know I just feel like I should know who this kid is but I've never seen him before in my life ya know?" Beast Boy should his head and turned back to Raven, "I guess I thought I could learn something by coming here but I don't know anymore."

Raven stared passively at her friend, she had expected to get a simple 'I came to check on the kid' but instead had beast boy pouring out what he was feeling to her – Not that she didn't sense it already she just wasn't able to sort out exactly what he may be going through from the jumbled emotions that were coming out of him.

Though now her plan had backfired horribly on her and she had to tell him why she had come here as well instead of just using whatever his excuse she thought he was going to use. However to add to this Raven also felt the some of the same things Beast Boy was feeling. She glanced at the boy on the table then back to Beast Boy.

"I came to see him for almost the same reason." She admitted, "I don't know what it is but there's something about this kid that is not right. Every time I look at him I feel like I should know who he is as well but I don't." She then glanced to the side, showing that she was nervous about exposing any of what she was feeling.

Beast Boy nodded and thought hard about what to say next, he didn't want to appear stupid but he didn't want her to feel like he was just trying to show her up with his 'smartness' either. It was very rare when Raven would actually open up to him and he was determined to make it count.

"So…what do you think it means?" He asked after he came up with nothing better to say.

"I think we should tell the others." She said immediately, "If they feel the same way we do then we know something bigger may be going on." Raven then turned and walked from the room with Beast Boy running after.

"What do you mean something bigger?" He asked as he caught up to her.

"I don't know." She said honestly and they both walked the rest of the way to the common room contemplating their own thoughts.

When the two entered the common room they were greeted by Cyborg who was playing a game on the massive television while Starfire cheered him on, Robin was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Robin?" Beast Boy asked before Raven could.

"He is on the phone with the mayor assuring him that the sound this morning was not anything dangerous." Starfire smiled.

"Ah..." Raven said and looked to Beast Boy, "We'll wait for him to be done with the mayor, everyone needs to hear this." She said quiet enough that only Beast Boy's sensitive ears would hear and he smiled and nodded before jumping over the couch to sit next to Cyborg and grabbed a controller.

"Ready to feel the pain tin man?" Beast Boy grinned showing his fang.

"Oh bring it grass stain!" Cyborg hollered and in no time at all, the two were enthralled in the racing game, mashing buttons and all.

Raven sat cross legged on the floor to the right of the couch and drew her hood tighter about her face. She was beginning to get nervous about revealing her feelings regarding the child but she didn't know why. Sure she hated that the others, especially Beast Boy would push and prod her so much to get her to open up, didn't they realize how dangerous it would be if Raven lost control of her emotions? _Of course they don't_, she reminded herself, but this was different.

The fact that both she and Beast Boy felt the same thing about this child they found in the middle of the industrial district was somewhat frightening to her as the fact that this boy was at least protected by demon magic if not able to use it meant that she might not be the only one who was a half breed. After all Trigon had tried to use her to destroy worlds wasn't it possible that he would try the same thing over again after she had escaped from his influence? That was what was scaring her most was the possibility that Trigon may be trying to come back to earth to not only kill her but her friends.

Raven stopped her thoughts there; she was beginning to fantasize so she switched into her logic gear. There was nothing on his boy that indicated he was in league with Trigon at all, in fact after she had deciphered some of the runes on the boy's armor she found that most of the runes were there to help the boy control something, most likely his own demon magic. But that meant that if the boy was a half demon it was possible her Trigon theory was right. _Ugh where is Robin?!_ She thought angrily and glanced about the common room to find nothing but her three friends still playing the game, one watching.

Only after a few more minutes that seemed like hours to Raven passed did Robin finally show up, storming into the common room muttering things like 'not voting for him again' and 'pudgy useless sack of…' she didn't catch the last part of that one and was just happy that he was finally off the phone.

"Robin." Raven said as she stood up, taking full advantage of Starfire being distracted by the game Beast Boy and Cyborg were still playing, round 15 now.

"Hey Raven." the Boy Wonder said, "What's up?"

Raven had to marvel a moment at how under control he kept himself even though she could feel the waves of anger radiating off him.

"Beast Boy and I need to talk to you." She said looking over at Beast Boy who on hearing his name immediately lost the sixteenth round of racing making the match go to Cyborg but for the first time ever, didn't seem to care.

"That's right." He said as he hopped back over the couch and sat on the back end facing Raven and Robin who were near the table. Cyborg paused the game and both he and Starfire looked back to see what was going on.

Raven looked to Beast Boy who looked right back at her like he was waiting for her to say something but she would rather be burned to death while being gnawed on by piranhas before she would start this conversation and gave said look back to Beast Boy – who grinned and scratched the back of his head before turning back to Robin.

"We've both been feeling kind of weird since we found that kid in the bushes." He said, leave it to Beast Boy to take something innocent and make it sound bad unintentionally.

"What he means is." Raven interrupted quickly, "We both feel like we should know who this boy is, like there's something familiar about him and we just can't place what it is and were wondering if any of you have felt the same way." Both Raven and Beast Boy looked to each of the other team members but each shook their head, _great_ they thought in unison.

"What do you mean you feel like you should know him?" Cyborg asked.

"I don't know exactly." Raven said, "The feeling is very vague I just know that's its there." She thought for a moment not wanting to reveal too much about herself but couldn't come up with anything so she left it at that she didn't want to tell them that she felt like that boy had something that was once a part of herself.

"Maybe I can explain it better." Beast Boy said and a thankful Raven gave him a nod, "With me when I look at that kid the animal side of me feels like, I dunno, like I know him, just something about him seems familiar I just don't know what."

Robin thought for a moment as he looked between his friends, Raven was showing almost no emotion as usual but the little he could read of her told him she was somewhat frightened of these feelings. While Beast Boy just looked generally confused about why the kid they found seemed familiar. Robin then thought of the kid's green hair and how it was only a tad lighter green than beast Boy's and also the kid's skin which was slightly paler than Raven's skin but almost the same color of gray.

Also how the kid was wearing armor that according to Cyborg could not only repair itself but the wearer as well, quite advanced. He then suddenly remembered seeing a device on the back of the kid's armor that looked like it was jury-rigged to be there and not really a part of the armor itself but couldn't remember what it looked like.

"The thing on his back!" Robin shouted and pointed at the ceiling, "That's the only clue I could come up with as to where this kid came from, I remember seeing that round thing on his back and it didn't look like it was part of the kid's armor originally."

"Yes I believe it looked like a Frisbee dish." Starfire added, "I defiantly remember that as well."

"That's Frisbee disk Starfire." Raven corrected her friend, "I have an analysis of the boy's armor on my laptop in my room, whatever that was it should have gotten scanned as well. I didn't take a look at it at the time because I was concentrating on the Runes."

"Don't worry about it Raven I'll take a look at them myself, I sent a copy of the scan to the computer in my room as well." Cyborg grinned, "Maybe someone should go check on the Kid again while I look at that." Cyborg then walked out of the common room towards his own room to check the aforementioned scans.

Robin volunteered to check on the kid which meant that Starfire would be checking on the kid as well – while the two Titans would never admit it both Robin and Starfire were very much in like with each other and essentially inseparable – this however left Beast Boy and Raven in the common room wondering what to do now. A few awkward minutes passed before Beast Boy finally spoke.

"So were the only ones feeling that about the kid." he said but this only seemed to irritate Raven.

"Which means It's nothing and we shouldn't have said anything about it to the others because now I just look like a fool." Raven said coldly before phasing through the floor to anywhere where she could be alone. Beast Boy blinked a moment after Raven disappeared before muttering something about crabby creepy dark girls and decided to take his own frustration out in a game on the game station.

Raven phased into her room and sighed in frustration before plopping down on her bed and staring at the ceiling. Why was everything in her life so complicated? Raven felt as if any time she opened up just a little bit to her friends she either felt stupid for doing so later or it was because some demon was trying to use her as a portal to come to earth and make it burn forever in hellfire.

That aside she couldn't figure out how she had shared how she was feeling with not just Beast Boy but the rest of the team, felt like a fool for doing so and still have this strange feeling of familiarity when she though of the kid.

She shouldn't be feeling that way at all and she knew that, no one knew who this kid was and she had certainly never dealt with him before. Nothing was making sense which was causing her frustration to move some random vases around the room; Raven closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the vases went back to the original positions, she then moved to a sitting position, crossed both her legs and began to meditate.

- - -

Meanwhile in the medical bay, Tyler was just beginning to stir when his eyes snapped open with a sharp intake of breath. Where was he? He didn't know, he remembered that his mother had activated the healing runes of life in his armor earlier but now he was greeted with an empty metal room. He realized than that there were small suction cups with wires attached to his head that lead to a screen where vital signs were scrolling away and yanked all four cups from his head at once.

The screens on the pole above the bed he was in at once went blank and each suddenly made a shrill 'beeeeeeep' sound that wouldn't stop, some of the lights next to the screens were even flashing red. Ty covered his ears from the noise, why wouldn't it stop?! He had to get it stop in case he was prisoner somewhere or something. Three runes on his right bracer lit up in response and he threw his violet power at the machines which sizzled a moment before dying completely, some smoke coming from inside somewhere – but at least it was quiet now.

"What was that?" he heard a male voice say, "Common, something isn't right." The same voice said and he head foot steps coming faster now from the opening to a hallway on his left. Instinctively Ty rolled off the bed landing on his feet and looked for a way to escape but before one could be found a Robin and Starfire that looked MUCH younger than the ones he knew ran and floated into the room. Had he made it to the past after all?

"What day is it?" Ty asked before either of the Titans could say anything.

"It is Tuesday." Starfire smiled.

"Arg…no, I mean what's the date, what year is it?!" Ty demanded, he had to know _when_ he was not where.

Robin looked the boy over quickly, he was small, maybe even smaller than Beast Boy but that was because of his age he guessed, the boy's thick armor he now noticed was not only covered with runes but contoured over his body to let him move like the armor wasn't even there while offering good protection at the same time.

"Why is the date so important?" Robin then shot back.

"It just is! What year is it?!" Ty hollered, why couldn't someone just tell him the friggen year?

"It is the year two thousand and eight." Starfire said while holding a hand to Robin to silence him.

"What month?" Ty then asked.

"August." Robin answered this time, deciding it better to follow Starfire's tactic, after all what was wrong with telling someone the time.

A look of relief suddenly crossed the boy's face but was quickly replaced by one of determination as he looked away."

"Good." He said and looked back, "Then we still have time to prepare."

"Prepare for what?" Robin asked narrowing his eyes behind his mask.

"The end of the world." The boy smirked.

Robin blinked the end of the world? What? Really?

"Riiight…this kid's a joke." Robin said.

"Its not!" Ty shot back, "I know it's hard to believe but I'm from pretty far in the future and if we don't do something about what's coming _where all dead._" Tyler stared strait at Robin and the boy wonder back at him. He knew this could just as well be a lie but in this boy's eyes he saw that there just might be some truth to what he was saying, better the whole team hear it so Robin wouldn't have to explain anything later.

"I think you better come with us, I want my whole team to hear whatever it is you have to say, and don't try anything because Starfire here has got my back, and she's a lot stronger than you." Robin said and nodded to Starfire who would keep herself behind the boy to watch him, "Come." He commanded and walked out into the hallway with Ty following and Starfire close behind the boy. He then hit a button on the communicator on the wall and said, "I want all of you in the common room in three minutes, the kid is awake and has some things to explain apparently."

Tyler walked in between Robin and Starfire thinking quickly, he had not expected to be shoved in front of the whole of the Teen Titans and told to explain why everyone was doomed in less than four months. Than again he had not expected to even make it to the past. The Robin he knew was apparently right about himself being a somewhat of a prick but it wasn't as bad as he had imagined it was, Starfire was also different but only in looked her personality it seemed didn't change that much over the years.

_Oh no!_ He suddenly realized that he was going to have to use that cover story his mom had made up to explain who he was, even worse he realized he was about to see his past mother and father who not only had not had him yet, but were not even together yet.

"So what is your name?" Starfire asked from behind him, jogging him from his thoughts as all three entered the elevator.

"Umm…Tyler, but everyone just calls me Ty." He said, that part was true but he couldn't remember the cover story that went behind it, what was he going to do?! Ugh why didn't anyone tell him time travel was this complicated.

"That's a wonderful name!" Starfire said, "You can call me Starfire, I would tell you my real name but I have been told it is difficult to pronounce." She pouted.

Ty had been told her name once in his time, and agreed silently that it was impossible to pronounce. He hoped that she would talk more but a swift glance back from Robin and Starfire stopped talking to him – five silent minutes later Ty found himself standing in front of the Teen Titans minus Cyborg. Robin asked where he was and Raven said he may be in his room but left out what he was doing. Ty sat cross legged with his back against the couch and three older teens glancing at him, desperately wishing he could remember his cover story.

He kept his eyes focused on the floor in front of him as he wanted to avoid looking at his mother and – correction future mother and father. He could feel their eyes on him though and through his own limited empathic abilities was able to feel the confusion Beast Boy and Raven were broadcasting, the former much easier than the latter. His powers of the mind were never as good as his mothers and instead of being able to read emotions he could just feel what others were feeling much greater than a normal person.

"Robin! Sorry I'm late but that thing on the kid's back is a time ma-" Cyborg stopped speaking as he ran in the room and saw the boy sitting in front of him with his back against the back of the u shaped couch. _Well at least they know I'm a time traveler._ He thought.

"Alright kid, lets start with this for everyone, What is your name?" Robin said as he crossed his arms and stared Ty down.

"Tyler, but everyone calls me Ty." He said, the only thing he wanted to hide right now was his heritage.

"How old are you?" Starfire interrupted Robin as he was about to speak.

"Twelve." He responded and looked up but still avoided eye contact with his future parents.

"Where do you come from?" Robin asked.

"A bunker in a hill." Ty said; it was true.

"Don't be smart with me!" Robin protested.

"But I'm telling the truth! You shouldn't ask where I come from anyway _when _I come from is more important." Ty crossed his arms in front of his chest and he and Robin had another staring contest. The other Titans considered what he said for a moment before Cyborg finally spoke.

"That thing on your back is a Time Machine isn't it?" He said and Ty actually grinned and nodded, "So _when_ do you come from?"

"The year Two Thousand and Twenty One." Ty watched the others expressions after he said that, each showed some measure of disbelief

"Dude, that's incredible! Are there like, flying cars and stuff?" Beast Boy said but didn't get an answer as Raven asked, "How are we supposed to believe you?" before Ty could respond.

"I don't have anything other than what I can tell you, and I can tell you that in a few months the world is going to end unless we find somewhat to stop the Echrid." Ty said as he stood up.

"Who are you really?" Raven pressed.

Wow his mom really was prying, and he couldn't think of an answer that would make sense. He thought quickly and the best he could come up with was "I'm just one of the last fighters that were left in the world and I came back hoping to change that."

"So tell us then Ty, what is going to end the world in three months?" Robin asked, still skeptical this boy was telling the truth.

"They are called the Echrid; it's a race of insect-like aliens whose only purpose is the destruction of worlds. They are like locusts, going from planet to planet decimating or annihilating the population while consuming every resource available to keep their mother ship alive. If you don't believe me, go to the space center tonight and look out to where Pluto is…the mother ship should be there soon." Ty said grimly.

"Dude, so in the future these aliens took over the world?" Beast Boy said, feeling a little at awe that anything could have that kind of destructive power.

"Destroyed is a better word, not even nuclear weapons could stop them." Ty sighed and sat on the back of the couch looking at the ground, he was beginning to realize that maybe he needed more time to find a way to destroy the Echrid's mother ship. Many different things had been tried in his time, the least successful of which being nuclear weapons as that only made the beasts irradiated and angry. He sighed now not really having anything else to say.

Raven stared at the child, she could feel the waves of despair radiating off of him and the emotions were so strong it was starting to give her just the twinge of a headache. She could tell that he was telling the truth and wondered how long it would be before Robin believed him as well. Beast Boy on the other hand bought into the kids story immediately but that was because he was an inherently trusting person – of which Raven thought was one of his better qualities.

"So how do we stop them then, if they are out there?" Cyborg asked.

"I don't know." Ty admitted, "I need help figuring out how to stop them, will you guys help me?"

Robin looked at the rest of his team, each of whom shrugged with the exception of Starfire who nodded that she wanted to help.

"We'll check the sky tonight from the observatory, if what you say is there is there, we will help you figure out how to stop it." Robin said finally, evoking a relived sigh from Ty.

So now all that was left was to wait for nightfall and hope that the end of the world wasn't on its why like Ty said it was, Beast Boy for one didn't really like the thought of having to fight to save the world again, each time they had been forced into a situation like that it had been very difficult. But mostly, he didn't want his friends, especially Raven to get hurt. Whoa where had that thought come from? Down Beast Boy…bad! No tofu treats.

That being said he did think Raven was attractive in a dark kind of way, he loved the way her hair fell around her face and- ARG no more! Beast Boy shook his head to get rid of those thoughts for now and opened his eyes again to see everyone staring at him.

"Eh-heh…itchy?" He said lamely wishing he could have thought of something better.

"Right…anyway we will check the observatory tonight feel free to make yourself at home, Cyborg will show you to the guest room." Robin said and walked off towards his own room and his detective equipment, Starfire then said she would see if Robin go with her to the park and ran off after him.

Ty followed Cyborg out of the room as the mechanical man was asking him all kinds of questions about time travel leaving Beast Boy and Raven alone in the same room for the second time today. Beast Boy stood there for a moment trying to decide if he should talk to Raven or not but amazingly she beat him to the punch.

"Do you still feel like you should know this, Ty kid?" She asked as she peered at him from under her hood.

"Yeah." The changeling nodded, "how about you?"

Raven nodded as well, "I don't like it. Something isn't right about this kid there has to be something he isn't telling us it's just a question of what."

"I dunno." Beast Boy admitted, "He's from the future after all there's probably just some things that he has seen and knows that he cant tell us because it would mess up the time-line too bad."

Raven blinked, "since when do you know anything about time travel?"

"Dude! You read books all the time don't you know what science fiction is?" Beast Boy gawked, how could she not have read a science fiction book?

"Since when do you read?" She countered.

"Movies, you should watch them more." Beast Boy laughed that she didn't know he would know about time travel from movies, it actually made him feel smart.

Raven on the other hand was just staring at Beast Boy with a look of confusion as the changeling may actually know more about time travel than herself. Was this even possible, after all she was more schooled in dimensional travel than he was but here she was, watching him make points that made more sense than her own. She sighed, then said, "Fine maybe I'll watch more movies with you if you actually come up with a movie that is intelligent and interesting, but not today." She said and walked back to her room leaving Beast Boy standing in the common room with a triumphant grin on his face.

Raven had said she would watch a movie with him if he could fine one intelligent and interesting, which really meant if he could find a movie that was interesting to _her _she would watch it with hi.

Screw the potential end of the world that was coming Beast Boy needed to find a movie that Raven would watch with him, that was vastly more important and on that thought Beast Boy was off to the movie store, it was only just getting to noon now which was plenty of time to find what he wanted. _This is a test_ he thought, _Raven things she can get out of watching a movie with me because she doesn't think I'll find a movie she will like, well __**Game On!**_


	4. Chapter 3: Jinxed Plans

HELLOOOO THERE!

It's been a while; the reason for this is at my work I have been working 50 hour weeks for the past month-ish maybe longer, I don't really know anymore my sense of time is skewed.

But at any rate that left not a whole lot of time to write so after 3 weeks I finally have chapter 3 done.

Its short I know, but these transition chapters are always tough for me and the action will start again next chapter, promise.

As far as Jinx goes, I had to do some wiki and google searches to learn anything about that character so If I get the personality wrong I apologize in advance. My Teen Titans knowledge is not the best I 'm just really good at winging it.

Also apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but the work schedule has me perpetually tired so ill make up for it in the next one.

Also put a plug in for my first real job, McDonalds, what can I say…-shrug-

I don't own Teen Titans, I wish I did, i would have more money.

I _DO_ own Ty as a character however, please don't use him without permission, I'm a nice guy…promise ;)

Again, sorry about the shortness, Enjoy, please review.

(I will probably lengthen it later anyway)

--

Flashback Chapter 3: Jinxed Planning

--

The air shaft was a tight fit but the pink haired girl was still able to fit through it easy enough and with minimal noise. She was running this mission alone which was all well and good as her former 'teammates' were so incompetent that she may as well have done everything herself anyway.

Once a member of the H.I.V.E before it was brought down Jinx had afterward become the pseudo leader of the remaining members after its fall – but after many stints in jail and other frustrations, Jinx had left gizmo, Billy numerous, Mamoth, See-More, and Kid Wykkyd, to fend for themselves – the latter three of five still doing jail time.

In doing so early on she had joined up with what was then her boyfriend Kid Flash but that didn't last as long as she had hoped it would, while she still liked the boy she couldn't see herself ever having feelings that were more than just 'like' for him, mainly because he would flirt with anything that was female and shaped like a human.

So late one night Jinx decided that Kid Flash had pointed her onto the right path, but it was going to be up to her to find her own way now, and left the extraordinarily fast boy while he was sleeping, leaving only a note for him explaining why, and fading into the shadows towards her new life.

After that the pink haired sorceress had returned to Jump city to try and start her life anew but it had not been easy. Firstly she had to find a job where she could stay unseen by the Titans who protected the city, but managed to land a position working at a McDonalds, it wasn't much but it was getting her by. She then had managed to get a small studio apartment under the assumed name Fiona Pink, which usually got some sort of a chuckle when her pink hair was noticed.

But with the work and shelter thing taken care of Jinx found that outside of the one free meal a day she got while working, she didn't really have enough money left to buy food and was constantly hungry.

While she _was_ trying to turn her life around and not habitually steal anything a girl could only go so long eating one and a half meals a day before something would snap, and that moment came tonight when her stomach growled for a dinner she wasn't going to have.

At least until she managed to kype a meal from the closed supermarket whose air ducts she was currently crawling through.

Finally reaching the vent she wanted Jinx pulled on a ski mask to hide her noticeably pink hair and to prevent her from being recognized in case she was seen, she was also wearing a black jumpsuit instead of her normal witch outfit – she didn't want anyone to know that she had gone back to stealing as a means of survival, besides it was just until she could get a better job, at least that's what she kept telling herself.

Justification was always an important aspect of thievery and no one was better at telling herself that she wasn't doing anything that wrong than Jinx. _At least this excuse is better than stealing 'because it's shiny'_ she thought as she kicked the vent out and hopped down onto the floor in the middle of the frozen foods section. Rising up in front of her was a display of frozen Pizza's and on the other side of the isle was a variety of frozen dinners and other frozen food that could be heated in the microwave.

Now Jinx knew that eating all this food wasn't the healthiest thing in the world but she wasn't much of a cook either, so frozen food it was. She pulled a black fabric bag off of her back, opened it up and prepared to do some 'shopping' when she heard someone say "what was that noise?" from a few isles over.

_Crap!_ She thought, someone had heard here break in, what kind of a food store had security guards anyway?! Jinx quickly grabbed a frozen pizza out of the display and threw it in her bag then sprinted for the door, but could hear the sound of running boots coming up behind her.

"Stop where you are!" The Security guard yelled but as Jinx ran by a impulse item stand and scooped a few granola bars into her bag without breaking stride, she then ran between two towers of stacked tomato soup and with a little bad luck from her, both towers collapsed onto the guards as they approached burying them in cans.

Jinx slid to a stop and ran back to the pile of cans, uncovering both guards just enough to confirm that they were just unconscious and not dead then threw the soup can she was holding as hard as she could at the glass front doors shattering the right door into little glass pieces and setting off the stores alarm.

Jinx then used more of her bad luck powers as the alarm shorted out a moment later, then slipped quickly through the gaping hole in the glass and escaped into the night, with her dinner.

--

Cyborg drove through the nearly empty streets of jump city in the T-car with the windows down. The large SUV plodded through the streets not really expecting any trouble from bad guys but always prepared for it, and the same went for the driver of the large vehicle. Cyborg had decided to go for a drive after getting Ty settled into the guest room.

Once he returned to the common room he had found Raven was missing, most likely in her room, Beast Boy was also missing, most likely gone to bug Raven or chasing something shiny, and Starfire and Robin were off somewhere most likely in their own little world or doing detective work. It was a perfect chance for him to go for a drive.

Driving his car around was Cyborg's Zen place, it allowed him to think things through and clear his head and circuit's of all the random thoughts he'd had throughout the day.

Like what was up with Beast Boy and Raven? Having feelings that they recognized who this random time traveling boy was bad enough on its own, but the fact that Raven especially was worried enough to talk with her friends about it? That meant something was _bothering_ her – now he knew raven pretty well and knew that it took _a lot_ to be able to bother her so whatever it was, it was probably pretty serious and could guess that it involved the little time traveler they had found.

He thought of Raven like he would a little sister and knew her almost just as well as he would if they were related. He knew that underneath her nearly impenetrable shield of zero emotions was someone who just wanted to laugh and feel what it was like to feel without fear. He also knew that Beast Boy knew the same thing about her and tried everything he could think of to try and get Raven to come out of her shell, but he was going about all the wrong way.

Cyborg knew that in order to get raven to open up a bit one would have to appear mature – which was something he didn't know if Beast Boy was capable of – and Beast Boy also needed to do something _Raven_ liked rather than trying endlessly to get Raven to do something that he liked to do.

Most of all Cyborg simply cared for Raven like he did all his friends, these people were his family and he was not going to let anything intrude or jeopardize their safety. Hence the reason for the room that Ty was in was securely locked with parts of the alarm system active so that he would know exactly what the little time traveler was doing – which at the moment was sleeping – but the thought of time travel actually being possible still blew Cyborg's mind a little.

Having seen the design specs for the time machine in his scan Cyborg was convinced that the boy was telling the truth about when he was from. Heck the time machine itself almost looked like something he would make given the right equipment and time, almost that is. Checking the clock he noticed that it was almost midnight and he should probably stop joyriding so he could go home and recharge. Turning right onto another road so he could turn around his headlights illuminated the broken front door of a grocery store.

Slamming on the breaks Cyborg quickly checked his batteries, he still had about four hours left, two and a half if he was in extended combat. But either way it was more than enough for him to investigate what had happened at the store. Pulling up to the front of the building he switched on all of the extra lights the car carried and jumped out of the vehicle. He hurried through to the front door and discovered one glass everywhere on the sidewalk with a can of tomato soup lying at the end of the glass trail, defiantly a robbery and probably a robbery gone wrong if the thief left a different way than they came in.

Cyborg quickly called the police using the screen on his arm and once it was confirmed they were on the way flipped the panel shut again, looked like his musings about the time traveling kid would have to wait till later. Quickly scanning the inside of the store he noted there were two unconscious guards lying on top of a pile of soup cans, and in the pile of cans Cyborg was detecting a faint hint of something that shouldn't have been there, but was something he recognized immediately.

Jinx, Cyborg was sure of it as that was the only person he knew whose magic was detectable by his sensors, and if she was back in town chances were that the rest of her 'cronies' were as well. The Hive Five back in Jump City, he realized most of the original six members were now in jail but the fact that Jinx was back and breaking into stores worried him the most, he had become close to her while he was under cover with the H.I.V.E and though he would never admit it, he had grown to like the little bad luck charm.

Quickly checking his power reserves to confirm he was going to be okay he quickly ran his way down the street – the T-car would stay there until police arrived then drive itself after Cyborg – Cyborg in the mean time ran down the sidewalk with his arm screen open following the trail of magic that Jinx had left. It didn't take long, he caught up to the sorceress about five blocks away from the store, but she wasn't running, just walking kind of quickly.

_That's odd_ Cyborg thought, _usually she is running like a cat with it's tail on fire after she steals anything._ He also noted that she was carrying a black bag that was quite empty except for an angular object in side. A quick scan form is optical sensor revealed it was a frozen pizza, since when did Jinx steal food? Were the former H.I.V.E members that hungry?

He also thought it odd that Jinx was stealing in the first place, last he had heard she was trying to reform her ways with Kid Flash, a teen hero who could probably drive anybody insane given the right amount of time but he didn't know what happened to her after Jinx had left with him. Something wasn't right about all of this and he intended to find out what.

" 'Ey Jinx!" Cyborg called out as he left his hiding place by a dark wall.

Jinx froze in mid stride, how had he found her so quick? More importantly was why were the titans chasing pathetic thieves like what she just did?

"Erm…hey Cy!" She waved as she turned around trying not to look to suspicious being out this late at night, in black, with a black bag over her shoulder.

"Where are your little friends?" He asked as his sonic cannon powered up but didn't deploy quite yet.

"They aren't my friends." She spat back, "They never were my friends and neither were you. So where are _your_ friends?"

"Back at the tower but they can be here in three minutes, one instantly." He said knowing that Raven could appear here instantly if the need arose. Jinx knew it too and that struck a little fear in her, "I know you Broke into that store back there Jinx, what happened to cleaning up your act?"

Jinx didn't have an answer to that; she was embarrassed that she had gotten to the point where she even had to steal to survive, _and_ alienated herself from Kid Flash, suddenly she wished she had never left but she knew that he wasn't right for her and she needed to find her own path.

"I…I don't know…" She choked back some tears refusing to cry, "I'm just hungry and I needed to get food but I didn't have money because of rent and then there were those guards and all I could get was a pizza." She pouted ready to burst into tears, "I only stole it because I don't even have enough money to feed myself!" she protested, "It's not like I'm not _trying_ to be good you know!"

Cyborg was struck then by the feeling that she was telling the truth and it hurt him to see her like this, so with a warm heart there was nothing else he could do but open up his own home to her to help.

"Why don't you come stay with us at the tower?" he asked, "There's food and good shelter, I don't know what apartment you have but I'm sure the tower is better."

"What?" Jinx blinked.

"Come stay with us Jinx." Cyborg pressed with a smile, "I know Robin can be a hardball sometimes, but the rest of the gang would be happy to see you turning your life around."

Jinx couldn't believe that someone was being nice enough to her to take her into their home. At this point even though she may not have liked Robin she knew that staying in the Tower would be a dream compared to the life she was living right now, after all her apartment while comfortable, smelled of rotting cheese.

She wanted to run to Cyborg and hug him and cry but knew that would make her look like she couldn't do anything by herself – that being the whole reason for her not telling the Titans she was in town in the first place – and she wanted so badly to be able to be independent after screwing up her life so far. But over all of this was her growling stomach demanding food, which she knew there was plenty of at the Tower.

"Okay." She said meekly.

"Great!" Cyborg grinned and pressed a button on his arm, a moment later the T Car flew around a corner and raced up to where the mechanical man was standing before screeching to a halt, with no driver. "Hop in." he said as he climbed into the driver's seat with Jinx climbing into the passenger seat.

"There's one thing we have to do first before we go back though." Cyborg said and Jinx was afraid she already knew what it was, "I want you to tell the police what happened why it happened, and apologize."

Jinx was beyond exhausted as well as starving, and could do nothing more but nod her head.

--

Ty looked out from the windows in his room at the thriving city across the bay, he had never seen anything like it in his lifetime, cities were targets for the Echrid and generally avoided at all costs. But seeing the city like this, so vibrant so alive made him feel good inside despite the fact that he had no idea how to stop the Echrid from destroying earth.

He had tried sleeping but no sleep would come to him because he knew Robin was busy probably commandeering high powered telescopes to find the Echrid mother ship.

He would find it of course just past Pluto and then he was sure that the whole team would want to know more about what they were and want to know more about him as well.

He had forgotten entirely his cover story that his mother had thought up for him and desperately wished he could remember it, Raven as his mom had come up with the perfect explanation of 'who he was' but a whole lot of good that would do him if he couldn't remember what it was.

He sighed as he walked back to the guest bed and plopped down onto it but it didn't feel right, he had grown up sleeping on the ground for almost all of his life and sleeping in something that was so plush and soft just didn't feel right, he wasn't comfortable. So jumping back out of bed with a huff of frustration Ty grabbed the blanket and walked over to the clear floor near the doorway to his room and got comfortable on his back on the floor with the blanket over him thinking, _that's better_.

But even comfortably on the hard floor sleep wouldn't come to him easy and he ended up lying there half asleep for a long time before he heard some sort of noise in the hall outside his door. Opening his tired eyes he tuned an ear to the happenings outside his room, trying to determine what was going on or being said.

The footsteps sounded like Cyborg's, heavy thuds that he could hear through the structure of the floor itself. The other person was much lighter than Cyborg was, maybe a female, he couldn't really tell because metal floors didn't resonate sound the same way as the earth did, but whomever was with Cyborg was defiantly smaller than he was by a long shot.

"I still can't believe you paid for the broken window, I would have done that myself you know." He heard a female voice say.

"You don't have the money to pay for that Jinx we both know that." Cyborg said, a voice that deep could have only been Cyborg, wait, did he say Jinx?

Ty shot upright and rolled too the door popping up on his feet and pressing one ear against the door so he could hear what was going on better.

"I know…But it would have made me feel better if you had let me just pay for it you know? There's not much I'm proud of in my life." The female voice said and in that instant Ty could tell it was Jinx, it had to be her, the one who betrayed them when her mind was taken over by the Echrid hive – leading to the death of not only Cyborg but his father as well…his _father –_ Ty wanted to scream, he wanted to kill her, he would _not_ sit here and let the girl who killed both his uncle and dad be on the same planet as he was.

The special runes on his armor designed to quell the enormous power that his anger generated suddenly lit up in bright red with steam coming out of the runes on his chest plate and shoulder pads. He hit the button to open the door but nothing happened, he hit it again but still nothing happened.

Pausing for a moment Ty closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down until a few of his anger management runes stopped glowing before he opened his eyes again. Jinx was here yes but that didn't mean she was an evil person. After all he remembered from when he was younger she was very nice to him and things only went bad after the Echrid took over her mind. As a matter of fact the Echrid seemed to be the cause of everything that had gone wrong in his short life.

In his heart he felt his anger burning anew, only now against the Echrid and knew he had to find some way to destroy the mother ship that protected the Echrid's hive mind, if he could just damage or destroy that the Echrid drones would cease to function correctly and most likely destroy each other.

But how?

Then, an idea popped into his head, an idea that was so insane it just might work, he didn't think there was any way to actually defeat the Echrid in a head to head battle, the race of insects was too numerous and too strong to be beaten that way, but what if the Echrid never existed?

The Flashback drive was strong enough to make a time travel worm whole for himself but would require _much_ more power in order to time warp something as big as the Echrid mother ship – of course he could provide the power the drive needed using his own life force easily enough but doing something foolish like that would probably kill him, there had to be something else that could provide enough power to the drive for it to warp the Echrid out of this timeline forever.

There was a sudden knock on his door that made him blink out of his thoughts and stare at the door for a moment blankly, only when the knock came again did he walk over to the door and press the button to open it, and this time the door slid open.

Robin was standing with his arms crossed, Starfire next to him.

"We have found the ship that will bring doom do us all." Starfire said before Robin could speak.

"Thanks Star." Robin said as Starfire smiled slightly to him, "The Acrid ship was right where you said it was."

"Echrid." Ty corrected.

"Right, anyway it was where you said it would be, so now what do we do?" Robin looked the kid over.

"Like I said before, in my time everything that could be tried was tried against the Echrid and nothing worked, but I think I have an idea that will, and the time machine on my back is the key to it all." He grinned.

"Alright what have you got?" Robin said with Starfire adding, "Yes tell us how to defeat the Ecklids!"

"Well As far as I know there isn't any way to defeat them outright, there are too many of them and they are too strong. So I had the thought of instead of defeating them, why not just move them instead?" Ty said thinking himself a genius.

"What do you mean move them?" Robin had no idea what Ty was talking about.

"Err…move them in the timeline, we can use the time warp drive on my back to make a 'weapon'." Ty Air quoted, "That can warp the Echrid mother ship far enough into the future that it puts the ship on earth just before the sun goes super nova." Ty Grinned.

"That's a good idea, but do you have _any_ idea how far in the future that is?" Robin questioned, the kid's idea was good but it was a long shot.

"Eh-heh…no." Ty admitted, "I'm thinking something along the lines of ten billion years-ish but the problem isn't getting there, the problem is getting enough power to the time machine to make it warp the whole Echrid mother ship that far into the future, not to mention getting the time machine _inside_ the ship itself."

"Why does it have to be inside the Echlid ship?" Starfire asked, "Can we not just attach it to the outside?"

"I wish, the time machine is the most stable when it is located at the point of the highest mass of an object, so like with me, its on my back because my upper body is the largest part of myself, with the ship we will need to get it inside for a time warp to be stable." He explained, he remembered Cyborg telling him about how it worked before he died but anything deeper than what he was explaining now he would not know.

"Right." Robin Glanced at the clock and noticed that it was indeed almost two in the morning, "I think that is a great idea Ty but it is late and we should all get some sleep and brainstorm how to turn your time machine into a weapon in the morning."

Before Ty could object to the lack of time before the Echrid arrived the door was shut again but not locked this time as Starfire and Robin left him to sleep. But how was he supposed to sleep when he knew the Echrid were on their way to ruin his future once more – no this time would be different, this time he would transport the Echrid all the way to just before the sun went super nova, which would annihilate the Echrid once and for all.

He sighed knowing that tonight there would be no more troubleshooting on how to defeat the Echrid tonight before laying back down on the floor with a huff, pulling the blanket up again before drifting into a dreamless sleep.

--

The next morning found the Titans minus Beast Boy and Ty – both of whom were probably still asleep – as well as Jinx, sitting in the common room discussing the Echrid. Robin stood by one of the large windows to the left of the massive T.V. with Cyborg standing in front of the screen, Starfire and Jinx both sat on the couch, Jinx on the far end. Raven meanwhile sat at the table sipping at her steaming tea cup.

Robin had been mad with Cyborg about not telling him the night before but to Cy's credit, Robin also had been too busy confirming that the Echrid existed in the first place so no one could have found him to tell him anyway. Jinx also was very honest about how Cyborg had found her and the events that happened the night before, Robin also knew she _was_ trying to turn her life around so for now, she could stay.

Besides there was that pesky issue of the world ending and all, so it made more sense for Robin to relate Ty's plan from the night before to the team to see if there was any other ideas.

"Really? No one has any other ideas?" Robin asked after about three minutes of silence once he finished, "I have a hard time believing that none of us can come up with something better."

"Well if a time traveler claims that with the right power he can transport a giant ship ten billion years into the future, I tend to believe the time traveler." Raven said flatly.

"Raven's right." Cyborg added, "I mean the kid says that he came from thirteen years in the future and told us about something that hasn't happened until last night. Besides I'd love the chance to look at an honest to goodness time machine, even if were making a weapon out of it."

The door to the common room by the kitchen suddenly slid open and a Tired looking Ty and Beast Boy walked in talking about video games. Starfire looked at the two boys as they came into the room and noticed how they looked almost exactly alike with the exception of Ty's normal ears and skin color – which while grey was still lighter than Raven's skin. It amazed her how humans could look so alike to each other when in Tamaran the only way her people looked alike was if the other person was related to them-

"Grunthark!" Starfire exclaimed when the realization hit her, causing everyone in the room to stop what they were doing and stare at her, "Err…It is day of holies for my people and he have to say grunthark at least once today in…in front of people I care about." She lied.

"Right…" Robin said before looking to Beast Boy and Ty, "Where have you two been?"

"Sleeping." Beast Boy answered, "Ty and I both woke up around the same time or something, we met up in the hallway, did you know this dude has never played a video game?"

While Robin caught Beast Boy and Ty up with the conversation Raven analyzed Starfire empathicly. If Beast Boy was a nuclear blast of emotions then Starfire was a planet blowing up when it came to how easy she could read the alien girl, and it was obvious that she was lying about the grunthark comment. Even Robin had to have caught the vibe coming from her, Starfire had realized something just after Beast Boy and Ty walked in and it surprised her, but to what end Raven could not tell.

"So you guys can help?" Ty said as his spirits rose, "I mean my plan is a long shot but it is the best idea I got."

"Well none of us have any better ideas." Robin said, "So looks like this is our best shot."

"So what do we do now?" Jinx asked from the far end of the couch.

"Well I suppose I could get started on the ti-" Cyborg never had a chance to finish his sentence as small armor clad boy with green hair charged the now glowing runes on his armor and rushed at Jinx, timeline be damned Ty was _not_ going watch that pink haired witch become possessed and kill his uncle and father again.

Jinx saw him coming and tried to duck behind Cyborg but Ty was too fast and tackled her at hip level making both super heroes roll away from each other. Rolling back onto his feet Ty suddenly found himself encased in a bubble of black magic, Raven had felt the change in emotions from him and decided to stop him before he did anything stupid.

"Let me go!" Ty Protested from within the bubble.

"Not until you explain why you just tried to attack someone right in front of us." Raven said.

"Seriously man what the heck? We offer to help you and you repay us by attacking one of our friends?" Robin asked as he walked over so he stood in front of Ty, sounding more than a little annoyed.

"I cant tell you it will screw up the timeline!" Ty tried to counter, "But she can't be here it will lead to the deaths of two of you!"

"You mean coming back in time to stop an apocalypse isn't screwing up the timeline enough already?" Cyborg chipped in, shooting down Ty's argument.

"Enough!" Ty said even more enraged, "I don't have time for this and I wont let her kill Cyborg and my father again!"

Instantly some of the runs on his armor changed color to bright red and in an instant the bubble Raven had around the child shattered and Ty spun around holding an orb of violet energy in his hand, ready to release it. But he was met instead with the business end of Cyborg's charged and ready sonic cannon and the end of Robin's staff at his throat.

"Calm down kid." Cyborg said, "No one is going to die here today."

"That's right, now what aren't you telling us? Obviously there's something that happens in the future that we need to know so start talking!" Robin added.

Beast Boy and Raven stood watching the tense situation; Raven was having a hard time believing that her shield had been broken so easily by the boy, whereas Beast Boy stood ready to morph into a tiger and rip the child apart should he try to harm Raven.

_How had he broken my shield so easily?_ Raven thought, only the incredibly strong could break her shield, either that or someone who know as much about demon magic as she did – maybe all of this _was_ a ploy by her father to exact revenge on her and her friends, but then if it was Trgons doing she would have been able to sense it in the boy, sure she sensed some familiarity from him but nothing threatening, certainly nothing of her fathers power.

"I can't!" Ty shot back, "I've already told you all more than I probably should have because I need help stopping the Echrid form destroying the world again, I can't pollute the timeline further."

"Why not?" Raven asked, "Already you have changed the future hopefully for good, so why not just tell us who you really are?"

"Seriously, I just want to know why future boy here tried to attack me!" Jinx said from behind Cyborg.

Tyler growled a moment before clenching his fist which snuffed out the power he had ready, and lowered his hand. After Tyler stood down Cyborg and Robin follows suite as Robin pressed again, "So who are you?"

"I'm…" Tyler stuttered, arg why couldn't he just have remembered his cover story, _look at me I'm a 'warrior from the future' freeking lame excuse is what it was._ He thought, the Titans were pressing him for his real identity and he had a feeling that if he didn't give it to them that they would most likely try to come up with their own plan to stop the Echrid that wouldn't work instead of using his – though the chance of his succeeding was marginal at best.

"Fine you win, you win! But if I cease to exsist because I screwed up the timeline too much don't be surprised." Ty said angrily.

_Here goes nothing_. He thought, before saying

"My full name is Tyler Logan, In the future, I'm Raven's son."

--

AN: Oooo Clifhanger!

I will get the next chapter up faster I promise, I should be having more time to write again soon as manditory overtime will be over soon as well, yay!

Please review, thanks :)


	5. Chapter 4: The Child of War

HELLO AGAIN!

Creative Zen strikes again and i got this chapter done fast :) wee!

This is the fourth installment of this series, don't know how many more there will be I guess as many as it takes to finish.

Its early and I'm tired and need a Dew so i don't know what else to say.

Im going to play Everquest 2 now.

PEACE

Enjoy, please R&R

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Ty – hes mine.

- - -

Flashback 4 – The Child of War

- - -

"_Is this thing on? Testing? No Ty just point it at me and record. Okay. Hello my Friends, I know this is all very confusing but please allow me to explain what is going on. First of all the fact that you are listening to this recording at all means that I was right to assume my son would forget the elaborate cover story I thought up for him and gave him this disk just in case."_

On the coffee table in the common room a small disk shaped object lit up and a holographic image of an adult Raven appeared from the center. Her Hair was longer and face looked worn from constant battle, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the image was not Raven's future self.

"_I know it comes as a shock to all of you that I have a son, it was even more surprising to me when I found out I was pregnant trust me…but what is more important is to give the man that I love as well as the child we made a chance at a better life, to give the world a chance."_

"_Tyler I'm sure you have met already. _The holographic Raven smiled softly, _he has probably told you already he is my son, but I think if he has gone that far it is also fair for you to know that Garfield is the father, you might still call him Beast Boy but during this war that were losing we just call him Beast now, as he has outgrown the 'boy' part._

The holographic Raven's expression changed, still smiling softly but looked sad now, _Gar died recently saving the rest of us from Jinx, who was captured and possessed by part of the Echrid's hive mind. Cyborg and Jinx herself also died in the battle…"_

The holographic Raven then took a deep unsteady breath as if to quell her rising emotions before continuing.

"_As you may already know, the World we live in is about to change for the worse and I want to make sure all of you understand the full implications of what is about to happen and what is being placed on your shoulders by myself and Ty. By sending him back in time and telling you who he is we have created a Paradox, which means that the future is still not written in stone, Ty being in the past gives you a chance to stop the Echrid before they annihilate the human race as they have in my time."_

"_This horrid future, as well as those who live in it will only exist until the Echrid are defeated, if that can be done. Be aware that if you are able to defeat the Echrid this future will change and those in it will cease to be, which would be a very good thing."_

The hologram then addressed a wide eyed Raven and Beast Boy more directly.

"_Raven, Beast Boy, I know this is a lot to take in… knowing myself I know I wouldn't believe myself so Raven, Ty agreed to allow you to probe his mind for the truth before he left for the past if you have any doubts he is the one to address. Beast Boy trust your instincts my love, they will reveal the truth to you."_

"_Please my friends, you must find a way to defeat these aliens before history repeats itself…millions of lives are at stake including your own…Please find a way."_

After that the sound and image suddenly became fuzzy with a _bzzzzzzZRK! _ Before disappearing completely, the disk that was projecting it grew silent as well as the lights on it dimmed slowly from white to black.

The Titans stood or sat around the disk on the coffee table in the common room, each with mixed expressions of shock on their faces, none more so than the presumed parents of Tyler, Beast Boy and Raven. Ty himself was missing from the common room, having said nothing more after announcing he was their son than placing the disk on the table and stating he would be in his room as the recording was booting up.

"So…" Robin started to say.

"Don't" Raven interrupted.

"But he…" Cyborg tried but Raven interrupted again with a "Don't say it!"

"So you and…" Starfire tried but Raven said, "Don't even go there!"

"But we…" Beast Boy tried but was interrupted by a flash of black lightning and all the windows in the common room exploding all over the common room as well as out to sea, and with that Raven stood up and ran from the room holding her head.

By the time the other Titans recovered from their own positions to shield themselves from the glass, Raven was gone.

"So yeah…" Robin said again, "That went well."

"Maybe someone should check on the Kid just in case Raven tries to kill him or something." Cyborg suggested.

"I shall check on the boy." Starfire offered and flew out the common room towards the guest room.

Robin and Cyborg then turned their attention to Beast Boy, who was looking out the now open windows out at sea.

"Dude, you alright?" Cyborg asked, noting the distant look in his friend's eyes.

"I don't know." Beast Boy said, "Seriously man what Seventeen year old finds out that a) they have a kid and b) who they are going to have said kid with before said people are ever even together ya know?" His voice cracked.

"Cyborg, if Ty aggress can you run a paternity test on Ty, Raven and Beast Boy?" Robin asked and Cy nodded.

"Yeah, now that I think of it the kid does look a lot like Beast Boy with a little bit of Raven mixed in, heck even that hologram looked like an older Raven but never hurts to be safe I guess, I'll go ask Ty." Cy said and headed to the guest room, Jinx trailing close behind him.

Robin gave Beast Boy a pat on the back before going leaving the common room to see if he could help Cyborg or something, knowing that his green friend probably wanted to be left alone at this point.

He was right of course, Beast Boy stared out the window not really thinking anything other than _what the heck do I do now?_ He had a son, a _son_. A child in the future that was his to care for and provide for and that was an awful lot to take in for one seventeen year old boy. Of course as Mento from his days on the Doom Patrol would have told him, it takes two to tango, and in this case it looks like in the future he had been 'dancing' with Raven.

Now _there_ was a funky thought.

He had always liked Raven as a friend but had only rarely given the thought of having a serious relationship with her the time of day. Though that was mainly due to the fact that every time he tried to get her to open up about herself or even show the slightest trace of a hint of an emotion he would either get thrown into a wall or she would walk away. That being said there have been a few occasions in which Raven allowed herself to display a smile or needed comforting, but other than that he couldn't think of anything.

He sighed, and thought about things some more, so in the future he and Raven had a relationship – she was in love with him – and they had a son together during a time of war. _Wait backup Beast Boy_ he thought, in the future Raven was _in love_ with him. Love, like the cute hearts on Valentines Day smitten forever heart belongs to him in love, and he found himself somehow okay with this.

Of all the Titans, Raven was always the one who seemed to care the most about him when things would go wrong and he was always there for her when things would go bad as well. In fact, Beast Boy found himself enjoying the idea of himself and Raven having a serious relationship but knew that it would take a lot of convincing on his part to get Raven to admit that she liked him at all. But armed with the knowledge that Raven was probably going trough more than he was right now, Beast Boy left the glass strewn common room and headed to Ravens quarters.

Raven meanwhile was sitting in the middle of what was once her room, around her in a circle was the remains of what was all her furniture and belongings; sitting on the floor with her hood down holding her legs against her chest as if she were hugging herself.

How could this have happened? As soon as she had gotten to her room she had cone into her mirror to consult her emotions, each of them including anger, confirmed that she did have feelings for the little green changeling. Weather it was love or not was up for debate – affection had told her that she liked Beast Boy a lot but would transform into something else if it turned into love – and Raven was now left trying to figure out how the heck this had happened.

Of course if you looked at Beast Boy and Raven in an analytical sense she could see how she was attracted to him. In spite of the fact that Beast Boy was the most immature of the group ninety percent of the time of all the titans he had the biggest heart. She specifically could remember when Malchior abused her heart in order to try and gain access into the world again, after he was defeated Raven felt as though she had lost the battle as well, who was she kidding, no one could ever honestly love someone who was half demon.

But then when she was sitting alone in her room feeling pain in her heart like she had never felt before, of all the Titans Beast Boy came to her. She was so surprised that he cared enough to make sure she was ok that she threw herself into his arms in a tight hug.

_I could use one of those right now._ She thought as she slowly stood up, she couldn't sit in here like this anymore she needed to talk to someone; correction she needed to talk to Beast Boy.

As odd as the thought sounded to her talking with the green changling actually sounded like a good idea, of all the Titans with the exception of Starfire, Beast Boy's feelings seemed like the deepest to her, she knew there was more too him but didn't know what. But what she _did_ know is that if anyone could help her learn how to feel her own emotions it was going to be him – Raven couldn't explain why, it just felt right.

Walking to the door she pressed the button to open it and as the door slid open there was suddenly a gloved hand knocking on her forehead.

"Erk." Beast Boy caught himself before he knocked a third time on Ravens forehead, he could have sworn there was a door there a minute ago, "Sorry Rae." He grinned and rubbed the back of his head with his hand.

Raven was going to comment about how her name was _Raven_ for the five billionth time but instead took a different rout.

"Its okay I suppose." She said, "But you need faster reflexes."

"Heh, yeah sometimes those cat-like reflexes just don't do the tick…heh heh." Beast Boy laughed nervously.

An awkward silence set in after that, neither teen wanting to look at the other for a moment before Raven finally asked, "I need to talk to you….um…do you want to come in?"

"Sure." Beast Boy said and followed Raven back into her room, immediately noticing the lack of furniture that was in one piece.

"Umm…redecorating?" Beast Boy asked knowing full well what really happened.

"Listen Beast Boy, I don't know what to make of any of what's happening anymore." Raven began,

"A kid arrives from the future and as it turns out he's my son, correction _our_ son, and he's here to save the world from an alien race that is going to annihilate the world if we don't do something about it.

On top of that we get a recording of myself in the future that fills in all the details Ty missed and adds on top of that that in the future I am not only somehow in love with you and had a child with you but also watched you die apparently.

So tell me how am I supposed to be feeling right now? What am I supposed to do? I've spent my whole life pushing my emotions away and the result of that is apparently I cant deal with time travelers."

Raven fell to her knees on a clear spot on the floor and hugged herself she had meant to only ask how Beast Boy was doing but instead had blurted out everything she was thinking and feeling on one volley. She was sick of this, she wanted to be able to feel without everything around her being destroyed or blow up or thrown into a pocket dimension.

Beast Boy meanwhile was trying to get over the shock that Raven had said more than three words to him in a single sitting, not only that but was asking him for help dealing with her rampant emotions, he had to think of something smart sounding to say fast or she would give up on him again. But Being a man of big heart over big brains he walked over to Raven, knelt down and wrapped his arms around her in a warm hug.

Wanting nothing more than that, Raven leaned into Beast Boy's embrace and buried her face in his neck.

"You know I like you Raven." Beast Boy said, "You're my friend and that will never change okay?"

Raven nodded, "I don't even know what I'm feeling Beast Boy." She said, "I want to be honest with you about how I feel about you but, I honestly don't know what I feel."

Beast Boy nodded as Raven continued, he was just happy she was opening up to him at all.

"I've spent my whole life running away from my emotions Beast Boy I just don't know…" she sighed, "I don't know anything, and then I see myself or a future version of myself expressing emotions freely its just…I don't even know." She sighed in her frustration, Raven was discovering that she had bottled up her emotions for so long that now she was losing her ability to even know which emotion to feel in situations – not that this situation was anywhere close to normal but still – she was feeling overwhelmed.

But their moment was interrupted by an extraordinarily loud _BOOM_ coming from somewhere outside of the tower, both titans jumped to their feet and Beast Boy looked to Raven.

"Are you going to be okay if there's trouble?" He asked.

"Yes, I'll be fine thank you." Raven gave him a soft smile; friends or not she knew that he at least cared a great deal for her, and that made her feel good enough that the good feeling overpowered the overwhelmed feeling.

"Alright." Beast Boy smiled, "Lets get to the common room before the-"

Beast Boy did finish his sentence as red lights began flashing and the tower alarm went off right before he said it would, sure enough there was trouble of some kind about. Oh well this would give him a chance to stretch out, it had been a while since a real bad guy had tried anything in Jump City. Beast Boy thought as he and Raven ran to the common room that the lack of crime was probably due to the constant butt kicking he and the other Titans threw down on any bad guy who dared to try anything in their city; and his own dashing good looks.

Another loud _BOOM_ rocked the tower, this time as Beast Boy and Raven ran into the common room with the other Titans.

"A Star is falling!" Starfire said as they ran in and all the Titans, as well as Ty and Jinx turned their attention to the sky.

"That's not a star." Ty said, recognizing what it was immediately, "Its an Echrid ship, probably a scout or something." He gritted his teeth as the yellow flaming streak fell from the sky many times the speed of sound before it disappeared behind the Jump City skyline with a deep explosion, the smoke from impact following a moment later.

"Its looks like it landed Downtown, Ty what do we need to know about these aliens?" Robin asked.

"Don't get bit their fangs are toxic." He said and sprinted out the still broken common room windows flying towards where the Echrid ship landed as fast as he could.

"Hey I didn't say go yet! Arg! Titans go!" Robin ordered as beast Boy took to the air, Starfire carried Cyborg while Raven provided Robin a lift with her powers.

Ty was the first to arrive at the landing site of the Echrid scout ship; the ship had plowed into the earth just like the mother ship had in his time, though this one was much smaller.

Panicked citizens were still running from the impact site as Ty flew down landing to the sound of crunched gravel and waited for the Echrid to come out of the ship, which didn't take long. As soon as Ty had touched down the top of the small ship opened and two dozen Echrid poured out of the ship in a rush right at Ty and other civilians who were still standing about and runes glowing at full power, Ty sprung into action.

Three of the Echrid charged Ty immediately; yellow razor sharp diamond shaped bodies ready to use the slightly curved tip to kill and fangs ready with all six legs scrabbling to get to him. But Ty was ready and all three were taken care of with one orb of power blowing the insect in the center to tiny pieces that tore through the other two like shrapnel, killing all three.

The other Echrid then turned their full attention to Ty as the civilians ran away from the battle. Ty concentrated as the runes on his right forearm glowed violet.

_Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!_

He thought the words and thrust his hand at a nearby your bus, hurdling it into mass of Echrid so hard the bus exploded on impact with the ground spraying burning parts and yellow blood from the insects everywhere but as always there was still more, there was _always_ more.

An Echrid had spread its wings and taken to the air to get to him but instead of getting to his chest the insects head was met with a swift and powerful kick from Ty which decapitated the alien. Ty dropped to the ground then on top of another, crushing it, and rolled away from it sending a bolt of explosive energy into four other Echrid blowing them into whatever next life awaited.

He could feel the power flowing through him now, demonic anger towards the aliens who had mad his life a living hell since before he was born, and they would pay, they would all pay for the massacres he had witnessed, for the lives lost, for _family_ lost – and as the two remaining Echrid rushed at Ty with eyes glowing red he lifted both fists above his head and slammed them down onto the ground causing the earth itself to rise up and crush the two remaining aliens.

Ty then set his sights on the scout ship itself which was impeded at the bottom of a small impact crater in the middle of the street. Runes and eyes still glowing Ty thrust both hands at the ship causing it to spark with black and red lightning for a moment before it was completely enveloped in his own violet power – while he wasn't nearly as strong as his mother in the telekinesis department he could still get the job done – and bringing his hands up he used his mind to throw the empty ship back into the air.

Then bringing both hands together above his head Ty was able to generate a large sphere of energy and with tremendous effort on his part, hurled it at the Echrid ship blowing the ship into a few fragments and dust. As well as breaking every window in a three block radius of the explosion.

The Titans in the mean time just stood there, once they arrived each time one of them had tried to join the fight Ty had dispatched the aliens in question and was already three ahead. Robin was impressed with Ty's martial arts abilities, Cyborg was impressed with the way Ty's armor worked in tandem with his powers, Starfire was pleased to see someone else who showed the same fury she did in battle, Jinx was a little scared of Ty's abilities, and Beast Boy admired his speed.

These were the feelings Raven gathered from the other Titans and she knew, she was the only one who _could_ know that the way Ty was abusing him body and powers was reckless and unnecessary. It was downright dangerous and sense no one else could understand what was going on, it was up to her to intervene.

Most of all though, all of her emotions were screaming that she couldn't believe someone who claimed to be her own son, her own flesh and blood would show such reckless disregard for powers that could easily destroy himself or the world.

"Do not interfere." She told her friends and flew at the boy who claimed to be her son.

Ty seeing some pieces of the Echrid's scout ship that had survived the explosion was walking about throwing bolts of his power into the shards of the ship, destroying not only them, but chunks of the road as well

"Enough." Raven said, hovering behind him, "The aliens are gone, stop this before you destroy the city or yourself."

Ty whipped around and glared at his mother, how dare she tell him that he was using too much power after all he was the male. It was she who convinced him that he needed the runes on his armor to control his power in the first place, she was holding him back, this was all _her_ fault.

"Final warning Ty, calm down or I will _calm you _down." Raven said in a monotone voice, black energy forming around her outstretched fingers. Truth be told she knew she could take him and wasn't trying very hard when she put him in that bubble at the tower, but she would still need to be careful should he choose to engage.

For as powerful as Ty got when he was angry he knew Raven was right, she had far more control over her powers than he did which made her the more powerful one in a fight, he wouldn't stand a chance if his mom actually tried. Forcing himself to calm down Ty's eyes turned back to their normal green color and he lowered his hands as the runes on his armor powered down, but he kept his glare.

"I know you have probably been through a lot but that is no reason to lose control of yourself like that and I refuse to accept that someone who claims to be my own son would be so careless." She scolded.

"You have no Idea what I've been through." Ty shot back, "I've seen everyone that cares about me or that I've cared about die."

"True I don't fully understand, but that is still no reason to abuse magic as volatile as ours." Raven countered, of course, she was right again – why did she have to be right on the time?

"Why do you have to be right all the time!" he hollered at her and took to the air, flying away from the situation.

"Because apparently I'm your mother, and from what I hear mother is always right." She said to herself and took off after him.

The rest of the Titans just stood there with their collective mouths agape.

"Should we not go after them?" Starfire asked.

"Beast Boy, follow them and see what's up, looks like they need to talk or something but I want you to find out. We'll stay here and deal with the local authorities." Robin said and Beast Boy nodded before shifting to a hawk and flying after the other two teens.

"Is that really why you sent _Beast Boy _ after them?" Cyborg questioned.

"Nah, I figure they need some family time or something." Robin grinned as the police finally arrived on scene.

--

Ty thought about everything that had happened as he flew back to the tower – he chose the tower as he had no where else to go – and pondered the meaning of it all. His mom before he knew her was a lot more uptight than the woman who had raised him. His mom with Cyborg's help had crafted his rune armor specifically to control his power and as long as he was wearing it he shouldn't be able to lose control, even when giving into anger.

But _no_ this version of his mom had to be all uppity about how he used his powers recklessly and with no regard for himself – Which while true still irritated him to no end – but then there was the issue of her being right.

He knew she was following him and made no attempt to try and lose her as he could since that she wanted to have a talk with him, probably about everything from how he used his powers to how her future self had learned to control her own emotions, the latter of which he did not know the answer to.

Coming up on the tower now Ty descended slowly until he touched down on the roof of Titan's tower, Raven landing right behind him and being the angstie pre-teen he was he turned around and asked, "What do you want?"

Raven however did not respond right away, she studied the boy who claimed to be her son. In appearance she could see not just Beast Boy in him but herself as well, while he had Beast Boy's hair color, eye color and build, his face was more like her own. The shape of his eyes was more like her own as well as his nose and mouth; all in all if he lived to be older he would probably be a pretty attractive super hero.

One by one Raven took inventory of her emotions to determine what she was actually feeling about the boy; Happy was glad that they had a child, rude didn't care, affection wanted to take care of the boy, knowledge wanted to know more about him and take care of him, wisdom knew to tread carefully when talking of the boy past and wanted to care for him, anger thought the boy was an arrogant prat – but wanted to care for him, bravery wanted to protect and take care of him, even timid felt strong feelings of motherly instinct for Ty even though she would not act on them.

Raven then thought for a moment, what did she want from this boy? She could just as easily let him fly off and have his little temper tantrum hoping he would be okay but instead she had chased after him. Part of this was because she wanted to have a talk with the child about how he was using his powers, but the other part she wasn't sure about.

Sure she was concerned for him but it went beyond that into something that she could not explain.

"You're really my son aren't you?" Raven finally asked.

"Yeah." Ty smirked, "why would you have any doubt?"

"A child appears out of nowhere in a ball of lightning claiming to be your spawn and you wouldn't be asking questions?" Raven raised an eyebrow as she lowered her hood.

"Heh, point taken but I'm not a child – children run around and play outside I've seen too much death and violence to be a child." Ty said with a dark look and glanced away, looking out to sea. Raven walked up behind him then and put a hand on his shoulder as they continued to talk.

Beast boy meanwhile was circling high over head in the form of a hawk, oh sure he could see them fine but it was making him wish that he had acute hearing in this form as well so he could tell what exactly was going on. Raven and the boy that claimed to be his as well as Raven's son were standing at the north most corner of the roof and she had a hand over his should as they stared out to sea. He could tell that they were talking as well but not what they were saying – maybe it would be worth investing some money in learning to read lips.

As they talked though he could at least read what they were feeling from way up high, Ty looked like he was a mix of depression and anger whereas Raven was her cool collected self as usual. If indeed this child was his son – and he was pretty sure Ty was – then he certainly looked a lot more like Raven than himself. Even from five hundred feet above them he could tell that Ty's face looked more like Raven's than his own even though Ty was built like himself when he was that young.

For some reason it gave Beast Boy a warm fuzzy feeling when he thought about Raven and himself being a couple, having a child, and stuff like that. being Seventeen years old he had been giving the thought of what he was going to do the rest of his life besides super hero work a lot of attention recently and had decided that he was the type who would want to settle down eventually and start a family – he just never thought it would be something he would be doing with Raven.

While he had accepted that he had a son here from the future he was having a little more difficulty with the last part about Raven being the mother. He liked her more than he could describe and knew that from their talk earlier she may eventually reciprocate those feelings – eventually being the operative word. Of course he of all people should know that this all was a shock to Raven and he should be grateful he still existed in this dimension, the fact that he did gave him hope that there was a chance Raven could learn to express her emotions freely without worrying about her powers.

Of course there was always that song he heard once on the radio with a line: _love conquers all _or something like that.Maybe love would be the one emotion that Raven could feel without her powers going bonkers on her.

But how to test that theory?

Suddenly Beast Boy remembered that Raven had challenged him to find a movie that _she_ would like a few days ago and he still hadn't found anything. Swooping left he flew back towards the city and his destination, the Mega Action Movies store. Landing in a back alley Beast Boy shifted back to himself and walked around to the front of the store.

But when he got to the door he stopped, why was he coming to a store dedicated to action movies? Raven wouldn't like anything in this store at all and he knew that. Arg! Beast Boy smacked himself on the forehead and took to the air once more in the form of a hawk, flying farther downtown looking for a different movie store. As he was flying he passed the store where he had gotten that horror movie that lead to what the Titans called the 'Halloween incident' when Ravens powers forced her to admit that she felt fear.

Of course that meant that Raven did actually feel which was a very good thing for Beast Boy.

Finally on the edge of downtown Jump City Beast Boy found a little run down looking mom and pop type movie store, the front of the store proudly wore a worn out sign that said Fast Forward Video Shop and had what looked like an old VHS tape next to it.

He wondered if these people knew what a DVD player was but decided to take the chance anyway, after all he couldn't find what he was looking for anywhere else.

Shifting back to himself he pulled open the door and walked in, immediately he was greeted with the smell of old paper or cardboard. Probably the latter since old VHS tapes were sheathed on cardboard covers to protect them. The front desk with a old looking cash register with an older looking man standing behind it was to the left, the checkout desk itself looked like it had seen its share of use, the finish on the corners and around next to the cash register itself was worn almost down to the wood itself.

In front of him and two his right was probably seven or so shelves – some covered with dust – that were holding more VHS tapes than he had ever seen in his lifetime. But to his elation the two first rows seemed to contain more than the rest, and were conciderably thinner, this place _did_ have DVDs.

"Can I help you?" The old man said from behind.

"AHH!" The changeling shrieked as he jumped away, the old man chuckled, "How did you move that fast?"

"I walked." The old man grinned warmly as he leaned on his cane, he had the look of someone who should probably not be working because of age but here he was running the store by himself, his hunched over shoulders slopped down to his thick arms and round belly that were supported by the mans slightly bend legs. His face was as round as his belly and his bald head and cheeks turned pink when he smiled from behind large round glasses. "Is there something I can help you find young one?"

"Green one?" Beast Boy raised an eyebrow, "My name is Beast Boy."

"Beast Boy eh?" His old voice cracked, "Parents will name their kids anything these days." He chuckled, it was only then that Beast Boy noticed the man wasn't look at him. Rather the old man was looking through him and his animal instincts instantly told him what was wrong.

"Are you blind?" Beast Boy asked.

"Almost." The man replied never losing his smile, "While I cant see as well as I could when I was young I can still remember what my dear wife looks like and that's what's important."

Beast boy smiled at this.

"Would you like to meet her?" The old man asked.

"Sure!" He said, the other Titans probably wouldn't be getting back to the tower for another twenty minutes so he had time to talk with the nice old people.

"My name is Frank by the way." The old man smiled as he hobbled back to the worn out checkout desk with his cane – which confused Beast Boy because he thought frank was going to go get his wife. But when the old man reached the checkout desk he sat himself comfortably down in his chair behind the desk and opened a drawer underneath the cash register.

After fumbling a moment or two he finally produced a picture in a silver frame which he held out for Beast Boy. On inspection Beast Boy saw that it was a picture of the man himself – though a little younger looking – and a fairly attractive woman both of whom looked in their mid seventies.

"Fifty one years we were married until she passed away last year." The man beamed as if talking about her helped him through the loss of his wife, "I wouldn't trade any of it for the world."

Beast Boy smiled at the picture, it was nice to see that some people in this life had found happiness and could stick with it even if part of that happiness was lost.

"Sorry to be so sentimental, is there a Video I can help you find?" The old man asked after a minute had passed.

"Huh? Oh! Yes actually, I'm looking for something that well, something not for myself." Beast Boy tried to explain as the man patiently listened, "See there's this girl I know who is totally awesome but she's umm…picky, and I'm not sure what kind of movies she would like and she told me she would go on a real _date_ with me if I was able to find a movie we could watch together."

"I see, well I just may be able to help you then, but first I need to know what kind of a personality this special girl has." The old man smiled and rested both hands on his cane.

"Well umm." Beast Boy wracked his brain trying to think of how to describe Raven without saying too much, "She keeps to herself a lot and doesn't really show too much emotions – but when she does its really cool – and umm…I don't know she really just keeps to herself."

"Ahh I see." The blind man said, "DVD or a VHS tape then?"

"DVD." Beast Boy responded immediately.

The man then seemingly looked at the ceiling for a moment before telling him to look for a movie that was on the second row, third shelf, fifteen across from the left side. Beast Boy blinked at the man but then looked where he was told to and after counting fifteen across came across a movie called _The Notebook_. On reading its description he found that this was a romance and drama movie.

Beast Boy considered the movie for a moment, he never pegged Raven as the romantic type but was willing to give anything a shot at this point, even putting himself through a romance movie.

"You sure?" Beast Boy asked as he brought the movie back to the counter.

"Yes I am, the ones who keep to themselves are usually hopeless romantics and not willing to admit it, I know this because my wife was one at one point in time." The old man smiled.

This gave Beast Boy hope – if this old man could do it then gosh darn it so could he, Beast Boy thanked the old man as he paid the rental fee for the movie then eagerly flew back to Titans Tower to see if Raven was done talking to Ty yet.


	6. Authors Note

So funny thing about being in college full time and working full time, you don't have much time.

I realize I haven't updated this in over 3 months now, though I have been picking away at the next chapter and it is almost complete, I have a goal to finish this story before the New Year so updates are coming soon.

I'm predicting 3 or 4 new chapters to finish it depending on how long I make them.

I thank my readers and pray you will be patient with me as I try to find some time to do anything other than school and work and spending time with my wife.

Will update soon! thanks!

- Deleth


	7. Chapter 5: Things left broken

AN:

YAY! I finally finished this chapter

So Here is what's going on im working 40-50 hours a week and full time in school which is another 12 hours of my time somewhere in between all that, hence the story didn't get updated for a while.

But here I is!

I have a goal to get this story done before the New Year and anticipate at least 2 more chapters…3 if I do an epilogue.

But alas I rant too long and you probably don't care anyway, ON TO CHAPTER 5!

--

Flashback 5: Things left broken

--

The Echrid's mind was troubled, things were not supposed to be happening like they were. Its scouting party that was sent to test the strength of the people at the chosen landing site was destroyed in less than a minute – this was not good at all something was very wrong – but what? For the tenth time now it went over the little data it had received from the scouting ship before contact had been lost but again, nothing was standing out any more than it did before, the few Echrid soldiers sent were simply outmatched.

Were its calculations wrong? Were the humans strong enough to fight its soldiers? No, the mind already knew the answer to that, there had to be something else going on. The hive mind then rescanned the data for anything at all, which took a little longer than a normal scan but came up with some results this time.

Around the boy that had destroyed the soldiers and ship was a temporal field of some kind, barely detectible but defiantly there, and temporal distortions meant only one thing, that boy was a time traveler come to help defeat the mind once it arrived on earth or something – and it was the something, the unknown that unnerved the controlling mind of the Echrid.

But there was a backup plan, a plan that not even that time traveler could predict, the mother ship still had enough magma created energy to fire the warp drives one more time that way it could arrive at earth faster, but would arrive with much less energy to produce soldiers to buffer its already impressive ranks.

So now there was a choice, The mother ship could warp to just over the atmosphere of the planet but then would not have enough energy to create reinforcement Echrid if they were needed, or it could fly on its present course and reach the planet in 3 months…but then a compromise was reached with itself.

Powering up the warp drive in the back of the ship the Echrid's mother ship would warp to the target planet's single moon, and fly the rest of the way with enough energy left for more Echrid soldiers to be created.

It would take twelve earth hours for the warp drive to fully power up but that was fine… it had all the time in the world.

--

Raven sat on the floor in the common room facing the window in a lotus position – she had just finished the most life changing talk a person could ever have in a life. After all it wasn't that often that one would get to have a heart to heat discussion with their own son before said son was even conceived.

In their talk Raven had learned exactly how Beast Boy, Cyborg and Jinx had died fighting each other. She had learned that the Echrid themselves were controlled by a single entity in that lived in the Echrid's mother ship and that this same entity would try to attack her own mind as well as Jinx's once the ship got close enough to earth. She also learned that Beast Boy was apparently a very caring and good father just from the way Ty spoke about him rather than what he said.

Raven had also learned something about herself, she learned from Ty that love was so strong of an emotion that instead of making raven lose control it would cause her powers to settle instead – a concept that was so counter intuitive that Raven had never even considered the possibility before, use a singular good emotion to temper and control the rest, it was genius. In fact her father had tried to do the exact same thing utilizing Raven's own anger to try to control the rest of her emotions at one point the dark girl just never thought that it could work in reverse.

But Raven had never given much thought to the emotion of affection, in fact that was one of those emotions that was powerful enough on its own she couldn't imagine what it would be like if the affection she felt for Beast Boy ever became love. _Wow_ she thought realizing for the first time that this meant she could have a normal-ish life and actually show feelings for people without having to worry about them getting blown up, or everything around her getting blown up, or herself blown up.

She had been going about this the wrong way and for the first time in her life Raven was able to sit staring out of the common room windows that she had just repaired, actually _feeling_. Now she wasn't sure what she was feeling but it made her happy – of course, this was what happiness felt like, _duh Raven_ she scolded herself, that must have been either rude or knowledge…or both.

Glancing at the clock she noted the time and thought that the rest of the team should be back from down town soon which meant it would be time to face Beast Boy, a thought that made her quite suddenly feel afraid – that must be timid kicking in – why was she so afraid of facing Beast Boy? What harm could possibly come from her admitting to him that there _was_ something there that should be given a chance?

_No_ her mind told her _admitting any feelings to Beast Boy would be unfair for him and you, besides it would only fail in the end and you would get hurt – it isn't worth the chance of getting hurt._ Her mind was right too, the last time she had trusted a man with her heart she found out that she was only being used as a way for Malchior to regain his power – Raven was used and discarded like a worthless tool. She shuddered involuntarily remembering how she was treated in that 'relationship' – but then Beast Boy was not a sociopathic dragon who wanted to regain his power either, in fact the only things Beast Boy ever had done to wrong her was some harmless pranks and jokes, many of which could be taken as the changeling trying to flirt with her.

_Oh my gosh Beast Boy has been flirting with me!_ She suddenly realized and almost lost control, managing to barely keep her powers stuffed down inside herself at least for now.

It wasn't like her powers were coming up out of rage or frustration like they usually did her powers had a momentary hiccup because she was ashamed that she didn't realize Beast Boy's feelings for her before now. Of course this brought up a new problem by, it was okay that the Changeling had feelings for her, but did she have real feelings for him?

If she didn't then her theory of being able to control her powers with love was just a fleeting thought and she would grow old and gray never knowing what love was and everyone would hate her and throw rocks.

_No they wouldn't stop being silly_ wisdom told her but Raven already knew enough about herself to know that she lacked insight into most of her emotions and she needed to have a face to face with one emotion specifically. Standing up she close her eyes and phased into her room, snatching the magic mirror off of her dresser. She paused a moment then looked into the mirror and a moment later felt the familiar pulling sensation as she entered her own mind, after that the mirror floated back down to floor next to her bed where it softly landed.

Once she arrived in Nevermore Raven found herself standing atop a grassy, softly slopped hill – not the usual when she entered her own mind – clouds filled the familiar reddish black sky. Looking around she noticed a distinct lack of any emotions at all or traces that they lived there; the only thing noteworthy was another hill with a tree on top of it, next to the hill she was standing on.

Taking to the air Raven flew at the tree on top of the hill but was a little disappointed when she arrived as it turned out to just be a tree on a hill, nothing more.

"It's about time you arrived." Raven own voice said from behind her, turning around she saw a maroon clad version of herself smiling softly at her.

Affection had been waiting for her.

--

Beast Boy landed lightly on the roof of Titans Tower, arriving later than he planned because Robin had paged his communicator and he had to stop to read the message – which only told him that the rest of the team would all be late because they were helping the mayor plan an evacuation plan for the city so it would be empty when the Echrid arrived or some such thing the changeling really didn't read it. He had read the description on the back of the movie he rented and couldn't believe that old man had talked him into renting it as the short description made it look like the DvD case would gush out sappiness and pink hearts once opened – Beast Boy shuddered.

But hey tonight he was going to ask Raven if she wanted to watch a movie with him – and if she said yes then the night would be about what _she_ wanted not what he wanted. Yes folks, Beast Boy can be selfless when he wants to be.

Walking down the stairs into the common room Beast Boy noted that Raven and Ty were not there, and shifted to a dog to sniff around a bit. What he smelled was that Ty had taken off down the hallway; presumably to the guest room he was staying in as he seemed to like it in there.

Raven however had no trail that was leaving the room, it was simply there and then absent. This told Beast Boy that she had probably teleported somewhere else and even though he couldn't smell magic it was a safe assumption. Shifting back to his normal self then he proceeded to the first place that he thought he might find their resident dark sorceress – her room – and it wasn't long before beast Boy found himself staring down Raven's door not knowing what to do.

_Should I knock? Sure! Knocking is a good place to start. I should knock on Raven's door more often. Why am I so nervous anyway? _ Beast Boy though and gave the door a brisk but audible couple of knocks.

But there was no response.

Beast Boy waited a minute or so and knocked again a little more forcefully but still there was no response from the room beyond the metal door. _Is she ignoring me?_ He wondered.

"Raven! Are you in there?" Beast boy called as he knocked on the door yet again, still nothing from the other side. "If you don't answer I'm going to come to use the emergency code to come in there!"

Still nothing.

"I'm entering the code!" Beast Boy yelled into the door as he slowly entered the override code, "I'm opening the door!" he said as the door slid open.

But what met him was only an empty room, a Raven-less room to be precise. Beast Boy looked around the room but sure enough Raven was nowhere to be seen the only thing that looked out of the ordinary was the fact that her mind mirror was laying on the floor instead of on the dresser where it usually was…maybe she was in her mind.

Beast Boy immediately discarded that idea as he did _not_ want to end up trapped in Raven's mirror again for the sole reason of she would kill him dead. Than again there could always be an accident…

"Oops!" Beast Boy said as he 'dropped' – technically tossing the DVD is dropping it – the movie onto Raven's bed from where he was standing in the doorway.

"I guess I will have to just go get the movie out of Ravens room and then quickly leave." He said aloud as he entered her room and the door shut. Suddenly he realized he didn't have to do that as there was probably no one in the tower besides Ty down the other hallway, oh well.

Picking up the elaborate mirror he looked in it and instantly felt a pulling sensation as he was sucked into its smooth surface. The mirror then floated in the air a moment or two before settling back softly to the floor, leaving no one in the room.

--

"What is all this?" Raven asked.

"This is my domain." Affection replied, "I know you may have been thinking it would be filled with hearts and flowers and such, but I as one of your emotion am much, much more than that – though I was not always this way."

Raven paused for a moment before asking, "How so?" she wasn't quite sure where her emotion was going with this but at the same time she was curious – Raven after all new almost nothing about this particular emotion.

"Well believe it or not Raven at the moment I am not your most powerful emotion, nor will I be unless you let yourself experience what I can do for you more often – what all of us can do for you." Affection stated then lowered the hood of her maroon cloak before continuing, "It was Knowledge and Wisdom that helped us come to this conclusion Raven, we discovered that for the last few years since we defeated Trigon our powers have been at a stand still. Not progressing but not regressing either just sort of existing with no real point. It seems that after your father was banished from this dimension you were then free to use your emotions with your powers, meaning that once you start using myself, as well as the rest of your emotions, we will only get stronger. But as I said, you have you use me if you want to have any hope of using all of us for good…each of us has a specific trait that I don't need to explain but myself, as well as anger, are the only two emotions that can use our power to guide the other emotions."

Raven just stood there under the shade of the tree as Affection stat down in the lotus position and stared at her. Was she right? After all her emotions were all a part of herself even if she didn't want them to be – but there was so much danger in letting herself feel because of her dark, demonic magic. There had to be a middle ground somewhere that didn't involve her having to completely suppress her emotions.

"I know what your thinking Raven, you may as well just talk to me." Affection said, interrupting Raven's thoughts.

"I sometimes forget you are all a part of me and know what is going on, forgive me for that." Raven said as monotone as she could.

"There is nothing to forgive Raven the facts are simple, if you if you want us to grow you must use us, including me." Affection said, "In fact Wisdom believes that it would be best if you started with me."

Raven Blinked – start with affection? What was she thinking? Just like Anger, Affection was one of the more difficult emotions to control. In fact the only way Raven ended up keeping her anger under control was by banishing the emotion to be locked into its own domain. Maybe she should do the same thing with affection…no affection was one of her few emotions that radiated pure good and she didn't want to push that away. But at the same time she didn't know what would happen if she let affection out for use.

Raven realized then that utilizing affection meant that her affections feelings – her feelings – would make themselves known when she was around Beast Boy. For some reason that hit her as a very _bad_ idea, for as much as she wanted to be in a relation ship with Beast Boy she didn't think blowing up the tower when they kissed would go over very well.

"So what is it going to be Raven?" Affection pressed.

"You're making me decide _now_?!" Raven was surprised that she was pushing so hard.

"Well Beast Boy just entered your mind, so I suggest that you decide something fast – I shall wait with your other emotions until you make your decision." And with that Affection phased through the ground leaving Raven alone for the moment on the hill under the tree.

Beast Boy was here? What the heck! Why did he come into her mirror when she specifically banned him from that after the last fiasco caused by Beast Boy and Cyborg when they were accidentally were sucked into her sub conscious. But this was different as Beast Boy probably intentionally went into her mirror knowing she would be there – at least one version of herself anyway – this was a violation of her privacy. Infuriated now Raven turned her attention back to the hill behind her, and sure enough a moment later Beast Boy landed roughly on the hill, hopefully he broke something.

Raven phased over to the other hill to save time, appearing next to Beast Boy just as he was pulling himself off the ground rubbing his rear.

"Ouch!" He said, not noticing Raven was floating behind him, "Raven should really put a trampoline there or something."

"And just why should I do that if I'm the only one who is ever here?" Raven growled.

"EEK!" Beast Boy whipped around to see Raven floating there, looking very, very angry.

"Umm…hey! Fancy meeting you here?" he said lamely.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" Raven said through gritted teeth.

Suddenly Beast Boy didn't have an answer to that question, why _had _he come here? Oh that was right, he liked her and wanted to maybe tell her that or something, though by looking at Raven it seemed he had seriously miscalculated some things.

"Umm, I was just looking for you because I wanted to talk to you." Beast Boy said, honesty was probably his best defense at this point.

"Why couldn't you wait in the hallway or even in my room? Why did you have to come in my freek'n mind again?" Raven said through gritted teeth, willing herself to be a little more calm so she didn't kill the boy right then and there.

"I don't know!" Beast Boy shouted, "Is it wrong for someone to want to talk to you?!"

That outburst instantly made Beast Boy feel like a shmuck, why did he have to yell at her? Seriously did the fact that he liked her mean that he would have to mean to her? _What the heck Beast Boy. _He thought at himself, _cut this out before you make her hate you more you stupid jerk!_

Raven on the other hand could sense Beast Boy's guilt after that sudden outburst, a fact that made her feel like forgiving him eventually, but first she had to get him out of her mind before affection or happy showed up. With one swift motion of her arms Raven reversed the Mirrors effect catapulting both of the teens from Ravens mind and back into her room. Raven landed gracefully on her feet while Beast Boy landed on his back – a useful little spell that she had learned after the last time someone had entered her head and shouldn't have.

Now standing in her room with the green Titan Raven glared at her friend, a friend that had knowingly violated the privacy of her room – as well as her mind – just to talk to her when in fact instead of talking, he had yelled at her…in her own head! With an immense amount of sheer willpower Raven pushed away the thoughts of banishing the boy to another world full of fire and hate, and was forced to revert back to a cold emotionless husk of a human being in order to function enough to talk to him again.

"Beast Boy if what you want to say to me but if it was so important than maybe you should have respected my privacy and waited till I was _not_ in my own head – because you violated that privacy I no longer care what you want, now leave me alone!" Raven finished through gritted teeth.

Beast Boy blinked a moment before scowling and storming out of the room, shutting the door quietly.

Raven took a deep breath after he left; she was just starting to believe that Beast Boy might be capable of returning the feelings that she now _knew_ she had for him but now – now she was wondering why she had that thought at all. An even better question was how the heck had they made a child together? Besides the obvious answer of they had sex at some point – Raven shuttered – she couldn't think of anything other than it had been the end of the world and she had been desperate to get laid.

Yes, that was it, the only reason that her and Beast Boy had been together in the future was that she had been desperate. Obviously Ty was here to help stop the Echrid so that Raven could be herself again safe and alone. Yes, that was it.

Her and Beast Boy together…Hah!

With a new sense of smugness Raven sat on her bed to meditate but instead of the soft mattress she was greeted with the sound of crunched plastic.

Quickly standing back up Raven turned around to see what looked like a DVD case and through a large crack in the case the disk was also visible. The art on the front of the case depicted an actor and actress she did not recognize in a warm embrace – both the male and female depicted as kissing each other in the rain – and the title scrawled in neat, white print across the top 'The Notebook'.

She picked up the ruined case and a shard of plastic fell from the front of the case to her bed as she opened it. She must have sat on it just right because the disk itself was cracked on one end, putting it in a DVD player would probably damage the player as well as the disk further.

_Why had he gotten this movie? _Raven thought, _he hates this kind of movies…heck I hate these kind of movies._

But before she could give it any thought affections voice whispered softly in her head that he was doing it for her, Beast Boy was reaching out to her again just like he had done countless times in the past.

He cared.

Raven shook her head and looked at the DVD again – was it possible that someone actually wanted to spend time with her? that someone wanted to get to _know_ her? She sighed and once again reset all the thoughts in her head, all this love business was just spinning her logic in circles none of it made any sense.

But then…love wasn't supposed to make sense wasn't it? Tired of the questions that plagued her mind Raven placed the ruined move on her dresser and walked out of her room to find Beast Boy and have a talk about all of this.

However, the Titan's little green changeling was in no mood for talking.

Sure it was probably wrong of him to go into Raven's room and then into her mind without her permission but she didn't need to say the things she did either. "_You violated that privacy I no longer care what you want, now leave me alone!"_

_Leave me alone…_

_Alone…_

_Alone…_

The words repeated themselves in his head like a broken record that he couldn't turn off, and if he couldn't turn it off he may as well replace it with something else, like Linkin Park on blow-your-speakers-up volume level. But even with the stereo in his room threatening to explode and lying on his bed Beast Boy still couldn't shake the feeling that Raven didn't really want to be alone…but how could he feel like this when Raven had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him or his feelings.

Not that he had gotten the chance to tell her how he felt.

That being said, in Beast Boy's mind through all the hard rock and ADD realized that in his excitement to ask Raven on a date – he was being honest with himself now – and tell her how he felt about her he _had_ intruded on her privacy and while forgivable, this was a mistake he had yet to atone for she did nothing wrong. Sighing Beast Boy hopped down from his bunk bed and turned off the stereo thinking all the while of how he could apologize to Raven but couldn't come up with anything. Though he did have the thought about flowers a few times, he figured that she hated flowers as everything in her room was about as monotone as she was.

It was at that point that everything seemed hopeless; _maybe I should just give up. _Beast Boy thought grimly, _if Raven doesn't want to explore anything between us I won't push her, I owe her that much I guess. _He figured that it was his responsibility as her friend to keep the friendship as just that if Raven did not want to peruse anything more. However this was not a decision Beast Boy took without feeling like he just tied a few tons of weight to his heart then throwing it overboard into the ocean of eternal sorrow to drown and die. _Wow beast boy going all Goth now, chill out dude. _He thought, really there was no reason t hat he should be feeling more than conventional sorry for potential love lost but he had a feeling that knowing he couldn't be with Raven was going to be a lot worse than when Terra had betrayed him.

He was thinking of how he was going to deal with this new found depression when there three soft knocks at his door. Blinking he wondered why anyone would knock that softly but his keen animal senses told him that whoever it was probably didn't want him to hear that they were knocking.

Rushing to the door Beast Boy jammed the button to open it and was almost ran into the last person he expected to see. Raven stood in front of him with a strangely depressed look on her face, what emotions the Changeling could read off of her told him that she was sorry about something but what he couldn't figure out – he was the one that was sorry anyway Raven should still be mad at him not depressed – nothing seemed to be making any sense anymore, and Raven wasn't faring any better than Beast Boy.

She Stood across from him sensing the utter confusion that was radiating off of the changeling like shockwaves of emotion. Sadness, anger, surprise, happiness, love, love for her…Raven wasn't quite sure what to make of the last one but of all the emotional ADD that Beast Boy was going through his love for her was the most easily recognizable of all of the emotions, it was also the strongest. It made her realize that not only had she seen this emotion from beast boy before but she has willfully dismissed that particular emotion whenever she felt it from him in the past, how could she have done that? A better question though would be how could Beast Boy still love her after she had denied him so many times?

_It was simple really_, Raven thought, _you are an idiot._

"Raven?" Beast Boy said, breaking her from her thoughts.

"Beast Boy." Raven almost whispered.

An awkward silence took over.

"A-Are you alright?" Beast Boy stammered.

"Yeah…yeah…" Raven replied.

Awkward silence.

"Listen…" Beast Boy said, looking at the ground with his hands behind him, "I'm umm – I'm sorry I went into your mirror, I know that's something that's very personal to you and well…I was an idiot because I was excited to talk to you and…well there's no real excuse I'm just an idiot, I'm sorry."

Raven analyzed everything he said as she took it all in, he knew he was in the wrong for going into her mind – that was good – but he had a reason for wanting to talk to her right away, it must have had something to do with the movie that she sat on and destroyed. But the most noticeable thing to Raven was the overwhelming guilt she could feel radiating off him so strongly that it had replaced the feeling of love, blinking Raven realized that she caused him to feel that way by yelling at him, sure he had intruded on her privacy but she could have reacted differently than she did – she wanted the feeling of his love for her to come back!

It was then that Raven realized just how much he meant to _her_, even with all of his annoying traits and her pushing him away he still _loved_ her and wanted to be with her, even though she had lashed out at him in frustration on more times than one could count _he_ was the one that was there for her when she needed a friend, _he_ was there when she was down on herself, and _he_ was there for her when Malchior broke her heart.

_You love him_ a familiar emotion whispered in her head.

"Its…okay." Raven said carefully, she loved the boy but didn't know how to tell him she did or if she even should.

_You should tell him._

"Really...umm…Are you sure? You can throw me out a window if it will make you feel better." Beast Boy said wondering why Raven was forgiving him so easily, something was up.

_Tell him tell him tell him tell him!_ The voice of affection whispered in her head again and for as much as Raven wanted to tell Beast Boy how she felt she didn't know if she could.

"Do you want to umm…talk?" The changeling suggested and motioned into his room, while he wanted to talk to Raven he was wondering how on earth those words came out of his mouth _now_ of all times, and to suggest his room as a place to talk…right Beast Boy real smart there.

"Sure." Raven said timidly and walked into Beast Boy's room as he stepped aside to let her in, she wove her way through the piles of clothes and other things to sit on the edge of Beast Boy's bed, while the changeling himself sat at the singular char in his room across from Raven. An awkward silence settled between them as neither teen could muster the courage to look at the other – Raven pretended like she was staring out the window while Beast Boy simply stared at the floor.

"So umm…what do you want to talk about?" Beast Boy finally offered now unsure why he asked the girl to come into his room.

"I…I don't know what to do about you Beast Boy." Raven sighed.

"Umm…what do you mean?" Beast Boy asked becoming a bit nervous.

"I…" Raven thought about what she was going to say a moment, "I don't understand you...you do things like make jokes all the time to try and annoy me and intrude on my privacy, but at the same time your more of a friend to me than most of the other Titans by actually _caring_ about what's going on with me or what I think and feel."

"I found the movie you got for us Beast Boy." Raven said thinking _I sat on it and broke it too but I'm not going to tell you that right now because it hopefully doesn't matter._ "and while its not the type of movie I would like – _at all _– I really appreciate the gesture and… you've been such a good friend for me when I haven't been and I just want you to know I…I want to be a friend back, I want to be _your_ friend and maybe…_maybe _more than friends." The butterflies and knots in her stomach didn't help Raven at all as she struggled through trying to tell Beast Boy her feelings but she somehow made it through.

Beast Boy thought a moment before finally speaking, "Raven I…

--

Ty sat on the edge of the roof atop Titans tower mulling things over as the sun began to edge towards the horizon. It was calm up here, a good place where he could sit and sort through his frazzled nerves. Seeing the Echrid had provoked a response that he knew was coming but didn't think his anger would be so strong and even after the short li ved battle was over he was still harboring that anger. So he left the Titans where they were and went to calm down before he destroyed the whole city or used so much of his power that he would die, whichever came first.

So now he sat on top of the tower listening to the gentle waves caress the shoreline in a rhythmic beat. His messy hair swayed slightly in the breeze as sunlight glittered off of the rune covered armor he wore and as he swayed his legs over the edge of the tower one thought kept forcing its way to the front – he had certainly made a mess of things. He had told his future mother everything he knew about her and Beast Boy's relationship, how he had come into existence, why he wore the armor he wore and how his powers worked compared to hers, and anything else he could think of that seemed relevant and in doing so had created a paradox that focused around him. Now if anything that would have prevented him from being born were to happen he would simply cease to exist – there was a scary thought – but the fact that he was still here told him that even though he had irreparably changed the future, perhaps he could stay long enough to ensure that future would turn out for the good.

After their talk Raven seemed to have a lot on her mind and excused herself while Ty had opted to simply fly up to the roof and sit for a while and think things through. But his solitude didn't last for long as about five minutes ago the T-car drove up the lane and into the tower and he assumed Robin would want to talk to him as well – Ty after all didn't hold much back when he saw the Echrid scouts and that would defiantly peak Robin's interest – his assumptions were confirmed when the sound of the door to the top of the tower was open and shut, followed by crunching gravel as the Boy Wonder walked up behind him.

"Hey." He said, "That was …quite the show you put on back there."

"Yeah." Ty responded, not looking away from the sea, "I have some issues with those aliens."

Robin snorted, "That's putting it a little lightly."

He then walked up beside Ty and stood facing the bay watching the scenery, though the view was far from his mind.

"I know a bit about time travel you know." Robin stated, "I know that the fact that both Beast Boy and Raven know about you means that there is some sort of paradox that focuses on you now…and if anything were to happen that changes your future you wouldn't exist anymore. Cy's paternity test proved you're their kid so that leads me to question I have."

Ty looked up at Robin not really surprised that he was as well informed as he was; maybe he contacted Batman for help on the research or something.

"If you help is somehow defeat the Echrid that will change your future as well, change it so that the Echrid didn't exist in that timeline, a new future will be created where your experiences and people and time never happened, you _do_ have to realize that even if were successful you still will not exist anymore…your on a suicide mission you know that right?"

"Well it can't really be suicide if I never existed in the first place can it?" Ty smirked darkly, "If I was interested in self preservation I don't think I would have come back in time in the first place Robin. I know full well what will happen if we are able defeat the Echrid, and if I can change the future by sacrificing myself so billions of others can live I think that is not a small price to pay at all…you would do the same thing."

"Yeah, I suppose I would." Robin said, he was proud of the boy's determination to defeat the Echrid even if it cost him his life, however he had probably learned that from an older version of himself so it was expected.

"You know if there is any other way that we can get rid of the Echrid and save you we will." Robin stated mostly to make himself feel better about the situation.

"Nope." Ty said, "If the Echrid live I live, if they die I die – so to speak – because if we win, my future will simply cease to be and trust me when I say that is a very good thing." Ty smiled up at Robin then stood up.

"Alright then." Robin relented, Ty was right though he hated to admit it, so if they were going to save humanity they were going to do it right and get it done on the first try. "Let's see how Cyborg is coming on some sort of power enhancer for your time machine." He grinned and both boys set off to Cyborg's lab which conveniently doubled as his room.

--

"Raven I care about you…and not how I care about the others I care about you _a lot_ heck it might even be love!" Beast Boy said as he paced about the room and Raven gave an audible gulp when Beast Boy used the 'L' word, "I don't know if its love or not Raven but what I do know is that I like you an awful lot and I…"

"Beast Boy." Raven interrupted him, "Before you bear the rest of your heart to me you should know how I found the movie you rented…I sat on it and it broke in two."

Raven couldn't let him sit there and express his feelings for her if she wasn't going to be honest as well – and with that part out there was only one part left to go, her own feelings. But before Raven could say anything more Beast Boy went from shock to laughing himself silly.

"Really? You broke it?" Beast Boy said between laughs, "That's awesome!"

Even though Raven usually would find this kind of laughter annoying for some reason she couldn't help the corners of her mouth coming up as well into a small smile as the changeling calmed down.

"You know I really didn't want to watch that either." Beast Boy grinned.

"Then why did you get it?" Raven already knew the answer but she was following the promptings from the emotion Affection at the moment, and so far it was leading down a scary, but potentially wonderful path.

"I don't know." Beast Boy sort of blushed if you could call it that and smiled at Raven, "I guess I just wanted to do something with _you_ I suppose." Beast Boy walked boldly over to his bed and sat down next to Raven, "I know we see each other all day and on missions and what not but I really just want to get to know _you_ Raven."

"I don't know that you do." Raven said and turned her head away so she didn't have to look at him, she was ashamed enough of her demon heritage to know that if Beast Boy really got to know her he would wind up hating her, "The more you get to know me…the less you will like I promise." She tried to dissuade him from perusing this conversation and further, while part of her wanted desperately to be with him, the other part was terrified of eventual rejection.

"Raven." He said softly, "We wouldn't be sitting here talking about this while our child from the future is walking around the tower if I didn't think that there was more to you than that."

Raven was silent still looking down at the floor as if there was something very interesting there. Raven could again feel Beast Boy's love for her radiating off him in soft waves, each wave having a calming affect as they washed over her.

"So…you don't want to fix and watch that movie then?" Beast Boy asked after a moment, breaking the silence.

"I think some things are better left broken." Raven said as the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile while Beast Boy laughed hard enough he had to hold his stomach with his hands. But as he finished laughing Beast Boy smoothly placed an arm around Raven's shoulders causing her to flinch at the contact but not move away. She also didn't dare look up now that Beast Boy was so close, her emotions were on panic now and she was afraid what would happen if she were to try to speak.

"Raven…" Beast Boy said softly and she led her breath and looked up at him.

Their eyes locked then and for the first time in their lives they saw each other; for Beast Boy looking into Raven's eyes was like looking into the reflection of his own soul, everything he ever wanted or needed was there. For Raven it was swimming in a sea of emerald where she could feel how much Beast Boy cared for her clearer than she ever had before. As they stared at each other Raven was only vaguely aware of how they were drifting closer and closer together and was only able to whisper Beast Boy's name, eyes fluttering shut just before their lips met.

Electric fire danced between their lips and up and down their backs as they kissed – Beast Boy knew he had taken a very dangerous chance in kissing Raven but the payoff was instantaneous, Raven responded to the kiss by wrapping her arms around his shoulders to keep him close to her while slowly deepening the embrace. Raven had never felt this way before, it was the feeling of pure joy being in Beast Boy's arms while kissing him softly – it felt liberating even – she was aware then that Affection inside of her was growing in power exponentially and in an effort to not overdo it and end up doing something they would later regret, Raven ever so slowly broke the kiss.

They looked at each other again then and Raven couldn't suppress the small giggle that escaped her when she saw the goofy grin Beast Boy had plastered on his face but did a good job covering the giggle up by clearing her throat.

"That was nice." She said.

"Yes, it was." Beast Boy smiled at her keeping himself from saying anything stupid that would ruin the moment.

Raven smiled back and leaned into him, resting her forehead in the space between his shoulder and neck, which was very comfortable.

"Beast Boy…If we are going to be in a relationship I need to ask something of you." Raven almost whispered from his shoulder, Beast Boy could feel her tremble a little so he tightened his arms around her briefly to let her know everything was going to be ok.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I need you to be patient with me Beast Boy." She said and looked up strait into his eyes, "I'm still learning how to feel and all of this…everything is so new to me right now, I _want_ to be in a relationship with you but I need you to be patient, can you handle that?"

She looked up at him with eyes that told Beast Boy if he were to say no it would crush her whole world, not that he would ever do that, Raven meant everything to him now, and if he had to wait a few weeks before actually telling her that he loved her so be it. Beast Boy then leaning into her and gave her a quick kiss.

"Trust me Raven, I'll do my best not to hurt you and if we need to take it slow, that's fine. I'm just happy for the chance." He gave her that goofy grin again which made her smile. They sat there in each others arms for a while just enjoying the feeling of closeness when Beast Boy asked.

"So, what should we do now?"

"I suppose we should go find the others, they are probably back." Raven suggested and Beast Boy nodded. Firmly resolved to be together and take it slowly Raven and Beast Boy walked from his room with their hands intertwined and Raven's pulled back – both Teens feeling more and more comfortable with each other as they held hands.

--

The Echrid mind watched as the wormhole it was generating slowly got larger, it could clearly see earth through the distortion in space now, but it was not yet near large enough for the whole ship to fit through. Reaching out with its formidable psychic powers the Mind of the Echrid scanned the planet for anything that would be of use. While most humans were susceptible to the Echrid's controlling powers they were still human and thus useless, however it could detect two powers on the planet that while human, could prove useful. Both of these psyches had their own latent psychic power behind them but one mind was protected, and the other was not.

It was like a buy one get one free sale.

The Echrid mind focused and launched a tremendous attack against both of the minds it could detect knowing that it could at the very least it would gain control of one of them, now it was only a matter of time.

--

Meanwhile in Cyborg's room everyone was gathered around a table in the middle of the room watching Ty and Cyborg fiddle with the time machine.

"So basically, the whole city is going to be evacuated in the next forty eight to thirty six hours and because of the danger that is presented here." Robin said, "Jump city takes its alien invasions seriously and the populous is going to be evacuated to the surrounding areas, including Gotham city."

"What about other Heroes? Isn't anyone going to come to help?" Jinx asked as she watched Cyborg and Ty fiddle with the Flashback drive in an attempt to attach some large, powerful looking batteries to it.

"Indeed, will no one lend is aid?" Starfire added.

"All the Heroes that I've contacted are worried about defending their own cities so it looks like when the Echrid land its just going to be us." Robin said with a grave look on his face, "I don't like the odds but what else can we do? No one believes there's going to be as much destruction here as Ty thinks there will be."

"Let 'em stay where they are then, with a smaller group we should be able to strike more quickly and from the sound of things, if this time machine plan doesn't work were all screwed anyway so…" Cyborg shrugged and didn't finish his sentence; he didn't have to say that they would all be doomed if they fail.

It was then that Beast Boy walked into the room with Raven in tow, they had decided to keep their new found relationship to themselves for now, but stayed closer than what was considered usual to each other when Beast Boy asked how the thingy was coming along.

"The _time machine_ is coming along fine, these batteries are ten times more powerful than the ones I use so with eight of them attached it _should_ be enough to warp whatever it is into whatever time we need to warp it to." Cyborg answered with a Grin.

"The trick is going to be getting the time machine into the mother ship so that it will actually port them away." Ty added.

Robin mulled this over while Ty and Cyborg attached the last of the eight batteries they were using to the flashback drive. "A quick strike would probably be our best bet, hit it before they know what's happening."

"Yes this plan is a let is strike them down before they can strike us, like at the battle of zuklotarg!" Starfire beamed.

"Right." Jinx smirked, "Like zuklotarg…"

"It will still be easier said than don-" Raven froze the outer defenses of her mind had been breached and the middle defenses were beginning to fall, she was vaguely aware that Jinx had grabber her head and fallen to her knees screaming in pain and knew somehow she was next. Raven mustered her strength and pushed back against the forign entity that was trying to pierce her mind.

"Something!...attacking us…my mind!" Raven got out through gritted teeth as she grabbed her head her own knees gave out but Beast Boy held her up.

"It's the Echrid!" Ty shouted over Jinx's wailing, "It's already attacking their mind, trying to take it over!" He ran over to Raven who had falling completely now into Beast Boy's arms as she tried to fight back against the alien force.

Raven realized that whatever this was, it was more powerful than anything she had faced before and if she could not stop it, both jinx, and herself were going to die. And as the pain in her head began to increase her vision began to swim and darken, somewhere she could hear Beast Boy franticly calling her name …


	8. Chapter 6: Tension Line

HELLO!

So I've been writing as much as I can…which as normal isn't much lol.

Merry Christmas to all of you and thank you for putting up with my bad writing habits.

Planning on two more chapters after this one that will be fairly lengthy so it may take a bit to get them posted but I shall as soon as I can.

Also thank you to everyone who has reviewed, I _really_ appreciate the feedback as it helps me become a better author.

So without further ado – and please review ;) – enjoy!

___________________

Flashback 6: Tension Line

___________________

In Raven's mind the Echrid's attack was all but overpowering, the psychic force had penetrated her defenses like a hot knife through butter and she barely had time to shield her emotions from the attack before she lost the ability to stand on her own – luckily Beast Boy was there to catch her – and retreated into her own mind to fend off this attacker. What she found was that half of her emotions had already been claimed by the Echrid's attack and now just stood there with blank faces as if waiting for some inevitable doom.

"Raven!" Bravery said as she ran up, clutching her own head with one hand, "We can't fend this off, I don't know what it is but it's too strong! We have to do something now or its going to take control of our body!"

Raven only heard Bravery as she flew past her though, she knew there was one emotion that hadn't succumbed to the attack that could help her – it was an emotion that at the moment was the most powerful emotion she had.

"What in the name of all that is holy do you want?!" Anger shouted as Raven arrived in its domain. "Cant you see I'm busy trying to not succumb to whatever is-"

"I know I know, listen to me anger I need your help, you're the only emotion I have that is strong enough to fend off this attack and if we don't do something soon both of us as well as Jinx will lose ourselves to this Echrid thing!" Raven said.

"Why should I care, the thing might take over you but its not going to take over me!" Anger shot back.

"You should care because if we lose this battle, we may never see how our feelings for Beast Boy play out." Raven said, she could feel herself getting weaker, the Echrid was winning. "Please…do it for Beast Boy."

Another push by the attacker drove both Raven and Anger to their knees as the oppressing force tried to take control of her mind.

"Fine." Anger said, "I'm helping for _his_ sake and ours."

Meanwhile in the real world Beast Boy held Raven in his arms still trying to get her to wake up. She had collapsed into him her arms reaching out for him as if she knew it was coming, Jinx had simply just fallen onto the floor as Cyborg rushed to her aid and was now holding the small pink sorceress as she whimpered from the pain. Cyborg was about to tell everyone to take Jinx and Raven to the med bay when he noticed Raven's eyes begin to glow.

"Beast Boy! Let go of her something is happening!" Robin ordered having noticed the same thing and the changeling looked down at her a moment in time to see her glowing red eyes close, then open again as four red slits.

"Gah!" Beast Boy knew enough about those four eyes to know that when Raven looked like that one of two things was going to happen, something was going to explode, or something was going to die and as he didn't want to be either, Beast Boy let go of the pale Titan. Raven immediately floated to an upright position and levitated over to where Jinx was, Cyborg looked up at Raven as the half demon reached down and placed a hand on Jinx's head.

"Silence." Ravens voice said quietly, though her voice sounded like that of many instead of her own, Jinx instantly was quiet and Raven's four red eyes squinted as though she was struggling more with whatever was attacking her mind. Gritting her teeth Raven stood up strait again and levitated a few inches from the ground.

"You…will…not…harm…my…_friends_!" Raven said through her teeth as black power began to swirl around her, for as hard as she tried Raven couldn't find the source of the power anywhere on the earth – wait – Ty had mentioned that the Echrid mother ship had the power to use its psychic power from a great distance, through the pain Raven felt around the room with her mind until she found the two strings that lead upwards and into space, her four eyes could see the lines that led upwards and recognized them as very weak strings for how strong on attack was being sent through them which meant she could send it back at the Echrid ship, easily.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" In her mind Raven quickly created a path for the attack to follow, the Echrid's controlling force fell for it and followed Ravens path in and then back out of her and Jinx's minds and flying back up the invisible lines into space and with twice the power burning towards the sky.

--

The Echrid's hive mind was troubled, it should have had control of both of the minds it had attacked already but they had resisted. In fact one of the minds had been removed completely, perhaps the friends of one of the minds had killed the creature once it began to turn but it could not tell. Then suddenly it could feel something was wrong, the cords of psychic energy that led through the widening wormhole to earth had been cut off from the planets surface…and there was a large amount of energy coming strait up the psychic lines at the ship. Knowing that it was not possible to stop this much energy or power on its own bio metric shields the Hives mind simply ceased all function to the psionic part of its own mind, isolating that part of the ship.

And it was a smart move, as the power the slammed into the mind was fierce enough that the psionic controllers on the ship exploded into space, leaving a gaping oozing hole in the side of the yellow carapace that made up the ship. Membrane quickly if temporarily filled the hole before too much ozone escaped into space and the Mind set is drones about repairing the outer shell so the ship would be ready to make planet side as soon as possible. It had made the first move in the battle to come; the hive mind had played a gambit and lost which was most unexpected. It did not matter though in the long run it had enough soldiers to destroy the pitiful planet and recharge its core with magma from a young fresh world.

The Warp tunnel would be ready in a matter of hours now, so again the Mind of the Echrid waited.

--

Raven's body stretched back as she expelled the intrusion from her and Jinx's minds, Beast Boy could only watch in horror as Raven's body arched backwards as she struggling greatly against her attacker before the black energy around her faded and she fell back on the floor, her cape crumpling behind her as she did.

"Raven!" Beast Boy ran to the dark girl and gently wrapped his arms around her, Raven appeared to be unconscious from whatever just happened.

"What was that?" Ty and Starfire asked in unison.

"I…I think I can explain." Jinx said weakly from Cyborg's arms, "I saw in my head…there was a bunch of Raven everywhere…all the colors…and in a white flash…then the pain was gone."

"Sounds like Raven kicked the Echrid's attack out." Cyborg said looking at Beast Boy, "Jinx might have seen what we saw when we got stuck in her head."

Beast Boy nodded knowingly and looked down at the girl he was in love with who at the moment looked very small and vulnerable as she lay limply in his arms – he had to help her somehow. "Raven and Jinx are in pretty bad shape lets get them to the med bay." He said to Cyborg and each teen carrying Jinx and Raven, took them from the room.

"I thought it would be a few months before this Echrid ship thing was going to be able to launch a psychic attack on anyone, and how come that psychic attack didn't affect you?" Robin shot at Ty when Cyborg and Beast Boy were out of earshot.

"Firstly I'm not empathic or telepathic; I don't have those abilities, and secondly; how am I supposed to know what's going to happen I haven't even been born yet!" Ty said defensively, "Just because I am from the future doesn't mean I can predict it, my being here at all has already changed the future even though we haven't done anything."

"I suppose so." Robin looked at the floor a moment in deep thought, "What if the Echrid thing knows what you are and where you come from and is speeding up its approach to earth? Is that even possible?"

"I guess so, I don't really know." Ty shrugged, "Like I said I'm from the future, but I can't predict it."

"We need to check because if its closer than we thought there's a lot we need to do before it arrives; Starfire, Ty, lets get to that observatory and see what's going on, ill let the guys know where we are going." Robin said and whipped out his communicator as he walked out of the room. But Starfire and Ty waited a moment longer before following.

"You are indeed the offspring of friend Beast Boy and friend Raven are you not?" Starfire asked.

"Yeah…" Ty smiled slightly, not sure where Star was going with this.

"It is indeed wonderful news that my friends put aside their differences to have a relationship then, I just wish we could have met you under happier terms." Starfire smiled at the boy before following after Robin.

Ty stood there a moment longer before following after the other Titans, wishing that he could have met them without being the one who proclaimed of the end of the world, before following the other two teens.

--

Beast Boy sat in a chair next to Raven's bed holding her hand, she looked pale but no more so than what could be considered normal for her light grey skin, her eyes were slightly sunken and hair a little messy but his animal instincts told him that she was merely exhausted as Cyborg's quick tests had confirmed. Jinx looked like she was equally as strained as Raven was but was at least conscious and talking quietly with Cyborg about their relationship while the metal teen was under cover with the Hive. Beast Boy probably shouldn't have been able to hear that except people always seemed to forget just how acute his senses were – not that he was going to say anything he just thought it was amusing – and he took the moment to thank whatever god was out there that his relationship with Raven was not as gloriously complicated as Cyborg's and Jinx.

But seeing Raven laid out on the bed there tore him up inside more than he was willing to admit at this point, seeing her be hurting earlier when the Echrid was attacking her mind made him want to do something, _anything, _even give up his own life just so she would stop hurting. Now there was a thought he hadn't had before, not to say he hadn't considered sacrificing himself to save one of his friends but the compulsion to do so for Raven seemed much stronger somehow – but if his feelings for Raven were stronger than that of his other friends, even his best friend Cyborg that could only mean that…

_I…I love her._ Beast Boy thought in quiet amazement, _I'm in love with Raven…and I'm okay with that._

The idea seemed so absurd and yet so right at the same time, in fact he now recognized that he had always been in love with her and just didn't know it, the feeling was always there. But while Beast Boy was willing to admit to himself the depth of his feelings for her he would still respect her wanting to take this relationship slowly and carefully. So smiling to himself Beast Boy gave her hand a little squeeze and smiled, knowing that he would do whatever he could to keep her happy, and safe.

"Look at how he is looking at her." Jinx said quietly to Cyborg who was checking some sort of screen next to Jinx's bed, "Its sweet."

Cyborg had opted to lay Jinx down in the bed across the room to not only give her a little privacy but keep the rival sorceresses as far apart as possible, if Cyborg was anything he was prepared.

"What do you mean?" He asked not really paying any attention to his pink haired friend, eyes glued to a monitor.

"I _mean_….that he is looking at you the same way you looked at me a few times while we were part of H.I.V.E…well while _I_ was part of H.I.V.E." Jinx said with a soft smile that faded at the memory of Cyborg only being under cover.

"I told you before, I may have been under cover but how I felt about was real." Cyborg said quietly and turned to face Jinx.

"I know…I was just teasing Cyborg, but I meant what I said earlier, it may take me a while to forgive you." Jinx crossed her arms and looked away.

"That's fine; when you want to talk I'll be here." Cyborg smiled and looked over at BB and Raven, noticing for the first time that he was actually holding her hand, his face painted and eyes painted with worry over the unconscious teen.

"Be right back." Cy smiled to Jinx and walked over to where Raven was, standing on the other side of the bed to Beast Boy.

"You're sure that she's just tired from the mind attack thingy right?!" Beast Boy asked before Cyborg could say anything.

"Yes, and considering that Raven looks to have forced the attack back on her own is why she fainted, I promise she's going to be fine BB." Cyborg chuckled and saw an opportunity to pry further into the situation but he would have to word this carefully but in the end decided unadulterated bluntness would win the day. "So how long have you and Raven been more than friends?"

"Since earlier today…err I mean-that is to say we are good friends and…yeah…" Beast Boy made a lame attempt at recovering what he just said but too late, cat was out of the bag now.

"So you _are_ together then." Cyborg smiled and the changeling sighed.

"You could say that…Don't make a big deal out of it though Raven and I are taking this really slow because were still unsure about a lot of things." Beast Boy pleaded with his friend.

"No worries man I won't say anything, I'm just happy you two are finally getting somewhere." Cyborg grinned.

"What do you mean by that?" Beast Boy huffed.

"Oh come on Beast Boy it was obvious to me that you and Raven had secret feelings back when I was in the H.I.V.E academy." Jinx added from across the room, "You telling me that neither of you knew there may have been something there till your friggen kid from the _future_ comes to visit?"

"Pretty much?" Beast Boy squeaked, "Was it really that obvious?"

"Yes." Cyborg and Jinx said at the same time.

But while Beast Boy tried his best to fend off his friends questions Raven was in the midst of a dream she wished she wasn't having. Most of her emotions had survived the ordeal with little or no side effects but there was one emotion that was missing from the bunch once Raven had checked on all of them.

"How in the friggen heck am I supposed to know where affection is?!" Anger had hollered when asked, "I was a little busy helping us with a little thing called _SURVIVAL_ at the time!"

Raven at that point gave up trying to ask her other emotions where affection was as each one would give their own skewed answer and set off across her healing emotional plane on her own. But after fifteen minutes had passed she still had yet to come across Affection's domain, and she had gone through each of her other emotions domain at least three times now. Setting down on the grass at the boarder of happy's domain Raven stilled her own thoughts and worries trying to summon affection to her instead of a futile search from the air and sure enough, affection phased through the ground in front of Raven looking much weaker than any of the other emotions.

"Raven…the Echrid tried very hard to destroy me…" Affection almost whispered before falling forward into Raven who caught her and helped her emotion gently to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Raven sounded more than a bit worried.

"No, I do not think I will survive Raven…" Affection said, "you must tell Beast Boy how you truly feel about him before it is too late…he loves you…he-" the emotion then coughed violently a few times then and went limp in her arms.

Raven's eyes went wide, how could she let t his happen? How could she let this happen? Now she wasn't going to be able to return any of the feelings Beast Boy had for her, now she wasn't going to be able to have positive feelings about anyone! And what would Beast Boy say when she told him that she was now incapable of feeling love? No no no _no!_

"NO!" Raven sat bolt upright in the medical bed almost hitting her head on some sort of equipment suspended above her. Her wide eyes quickly searched through her surprised looking friends that were there until she found Beast Boy who was still sitting next to her and jumped into his arms, a maneuver that almost knocked them both to the ground were it not for some fancy balancing by Beast Boy. Raven curled up into a ball on his lap with her arms firmly around him and as they stayed close together, her heavy breathing began to finally slow.

"Whoa, Raven are you okay?" Cyborg asked after a few moments had passed.

_It was a dream Raven, _affection whispered in her head, _it was only a dream, all of us are fine._

_But tired, dang it! _Anger chimed in.

"Rae?" Beast Boy asked quietly interrupting her thoughts.

"I'm fine…I'm okay." Raven said, "It was just a nightmare probably from fighting off that creature in space…I just need to meditate." Raven quickly stood from Beast Boy's lap and leaned down and hugged him again, whispering _my room, as soon as you can get away from them,_ in Beast Boy's ear before walking out of the med bay.

A moment after Raven left Beast Boy sat there for a moment before announcing that he was going to make a cheese sandwich and ran out of the med bay.

"That was weird." Jinx commented.

"Eh, they've been like that even before they were together…you get used to it." Cyborg said with a smirk.

--

Raven sat on the edge of her bed anxiously waiting for Beast Boy to arrive so this empty feeling in the pit of her stomach would go away. It seemed silly to her that she would be so infatuated with the boy even though they had just confessed that they even had feelings for each other but at the same time, she couldn't wait to see him again just so she could feel that loving feeling he radiated wash over her once more. Speaking of which why was Beast Boy not here yet? Had he become distracted with video games by Cyborg? Nah the changeling may have some form of ADD but he wouldn't abandon her without at least letting her know what was going on, especially after what just happened. Maybe he wasn't coming though…maybe he had given up on her – Raven shook her head to try and clear those thoughts form her mind but as the minutes ticked by doubt began to trickle into her mind – maybe she wasn't good enough for him.

Just as panic began to work its way into her thoughts the door swished open as Beast Boy walked into her room. Raven jumped up from the bed and ran into his arms while wrapping her own tightly around his shoulders, burying her head into his neck.

"Beast boy I know were taking this slow but I have to know." Raven's voice came out slightly muffled by Beast Boy's own uniform.

"Do you love me?" she whispered.

Beast Boy was surprised by the question, first Raven was telling him they were going to take it slow and now she was asking if he _loved_ her, talk about a change of policy.

"Raven umm, what happened to taking it slow?" Beast Boy asked.

"Do you love me?" Raven pleaded to know as she looked up at him, "Please I have to know."

Beast Boy smiled down at her and kissed her, "Of course I love you Raven, I love you more than anything."

Raven was silent for a moment or two before leaning back into him so Beast Boy couldn't see her face.

"If where supposed to be together then how come when you tell that me that I don't know what I feel? I thought that you telling me would help me figure out my own emotions and help one evolve into something more but…why do I feel afraid?" Raven sighed.

"Raven." Beast Boy smiled at how little Raven understood her own emotions, "I love you but I feel afraid too, I think the reason for that is that this is so new to both of us that we're still unsure of where this may be headed and are afraid to get hurt. I think feeling that way in any new relationship is normal…not that we know what normal is." He smirked.

Raven couldn't help but smile at his comments, Beast Boy really was smarter than everyone gave him credit for.

"Besides even though I'm afraid I love you anyway Raven, I love everything about you. Your hair your voice the way you walk, they way you look, the way you look at me, how cool you are under pressure and…" Beast Boy was cut off by Raven pressing her lips to his again in a passionate kiss that hungered for more. But while they were kissing Raven began to feel something changing within her emotions – Beast Boy had made her realize that even though you may be afraid of being hurt that wasn't a reason to inhibit your true feelings for someone, and as she let her love for him poor out in the kiss she could feel one of her emotions changing, morphing into something more powerful than anything her other emotions could produce – Raven felt _love_ for the first time in her life, she knew then that she was her heart would forever belong to Beast Boy.

But then something Raven didn't expect came right along with this new emotion, something that was tied to it and separate at the same time but was almost as powerful an emotion so much so that Raven simply acted on its impulses…Raven also was feeling lust. Moving her arms up Beast Boy's back Raven pressed her body into him trying to coax him into going farther. The changeling responded by pulling her against his own body and wrapping his arms around her waist inside her cloak while Raven parted her lips slightly to allow their tongues to dance together. She had never felt this way before but knew that she didn't want it to stop as she let a soft moan escape while they passionately embraced.

_He's so gentle with us. _the new emotion named Love said.

_We should go farther._ Bravery added.

_I want him so much…we should go all the way, right now._ Lust whispered in her mind. _Let him take you…give all of yourself to him._

_This is bad…we shouldn't go farther yet…nothing good would come from it._ Timid's voice chimed in interrupting Raven's thoughts of taking it farther with him. _I – I know we had his child in the future…but this is now…we shouldn't let him go that far with us yet…something bad would happen._

Raven continued to have a wholesale make out session with Beast Boy but ultimately the voice of reason won over the others, and Raven slowed the kisses down until the couple finally broke the kiss and stared at one another.

"W-Wow." Beast Boy said with a silly grin on his face, "That was the best kiss I've ever had." Raven smiled at him and blushed slightly.

"Out of the total of the three times we kissed and me being the _only_ girl you've ever kissed?" Raven smirked.

Beast Boy looked mock hurt as he put his hand to his chest like he was covering a wound, "Hey…I've kissed…other…things." The lie died on its way out but he recovered by smoothly saying, "I don't need and comparison to know that was the best kiss anyway." He grinned.

"Anyways." Raven blushed, "My emotions are still…out there…from the attack and I really need to meditate Beast Boy."

"First I have one question, what happened to taking things slow?" He asked and Raven had to think a moment before she could form a response.

"It's the fast slow way." She said not wanting to tell him the real reason was that she wanted him to take her right now, "Please Beast Boy, I need to meditate."

"Oh, Okay. I'll just see if I can tear Cyborg away from Jinx long enough to play Super Smash ninja sharks five or something." Beast Boy smiled, Raven needed her meditation time and Beast Boy needed his.

"Alright." Raven smiled, "I'll come find you when I am done."

"Okay!" Beast Boy leaned in and kissed her one more time before grinning and walking out of the room in search of Cyborg while Raven assumed the Lotus Position on her bed and began to chant her mantra with the traces of a smile on her lips.

--

"What do you mean you can't get anyone here for an hour?!" Robin shouted into the cell phone "This has to do with the safety of the whole city I need to get into this building and use the telescope _now_!...Fine!."

Robin flipped the small cell phone shut and looked at the locked door to the Observation tower that sat almost twenty miles outside of Jump City on the top of a mountain. The building itself had been there since the late eighties and the era it was built reflected the design with the stucco walls that let up to the domed metal portion of the building that had a thing rectangular door on end which was closed protecting the telescope when not in use.

Robin muttered under his breath before asking Ty if it was possible for him to unlock the door with his powers.

"Err…I don't honestly know." Ty Shrugged, "Never had the reason to try in my time."

"I suppose that's true, Raven can but I'm not sure how she does it go ahead and give it a shot just don't blow up the telescope." Robin said and he and Starfire took a step back.

Ty frowned at the 'don't blow it up' part but ignored it; there were more important things to take care of. Not really sure what to do Ty stared at the lock on the metal door a moment before reaching out with his own powers to the lock. It was a weird feeling but after reciting the mantra his mother had taught him Ty was able to simply slide the deadbolt back and the door swung open a moment later – huh that was easy.

"Good work Ty, now let's get in there and see what's going on in space, the telescope should still be pointing at the same spot because the scientists left when we did." Robin said and all three teens ran into the Observatory. Just as robin predicted the telescope was still set to the last setting it was used at, all they had to do was open the doors shielding the telescope from the setting suns rays, but even with the interference from the sun and a few wispy clouds Ty could still see something in space that once night came, would be even more visible to the naked eye. A wormhole large enough to transport the Echrid mother ship through was opening right in front of the ship itself the distorted light and space around the epicenter becoming larger and larger with each passing second.

Ty blinked, how could this be? The Echrid mother ship wasn't supposed to arrive for another three months. Wasn't it Robin who told him that his presence here at all was changing the future for better or worse, the latter applying to this situation.

"What is it you see?" Starfire asked as Ty backed away from the eyepiece with a shocked expression on his face.

"Hold on." Robin said from the computer terminal next to the massive telescope, "I think I can bring it up on this screen here." And after typing in a few generic commands was able to bring up the picture of the wormhole that was forming, "What is that?!" he said.

"That's the beginning of the end of the world." Ty said quietly, suppressing the urge to blow the screen up, "If the ship is able to jump in closer to earth…who knows how much time we have."

"You mean to say you do not know when the ship will appear anymore?" Starfire sounded worried.

"There's no way of knowing until it…" Ty stopped talking the screen showing the Echrid's progress flashed all white for two seconds before going back to a normal view of only Pluto; the ship was nowhere to be found. Before any of the three teens could question the whereabouts of the chip though the light that was coming in from outside suddenly flashed unnaturally brighter for two or so seconds before returning to normal.

"Oh no…" Ty left Robin and Starfire where they were and sprinted out of the building and turned towards Jump city only to find too many trees in the way. Pushing off the ground Ty flew up about a hundred feet until he could finally see the city in the distance, still in tact with no giant ship in the middle. But where had the flash come from then?

"Friend Ty! Above the city, look!" Starfire yelled as she flew up behind him and as Ty looked up his heart sank. The sun was now below the horizon and the moon was almost at mid sky, but something was not right with the moon when he looked at it, just off center to the left, was a yellowish dot in the sky.

"Is that what I think it is?" Ty's heart sank.

"Yes, my eyes can make it out it is the Alien ship you have been telling us about."

Ty stared at the dot a moment longer before saying, "We don't have much time then common!" and darting back to the earth where Robin was waiting.

"Cyborg just called." He said clipping his communicator back on his belt, "That flash was the Echrid ship appearing in the sky, we missed it because we were inside but Cy said the light show was amazing enough that there isn't anyone in Jump city that could have missed it."

"Right, we don't have much time now Robin what do we do?" Ty asked, wanting to get down to business.

"Let's head back to the tower as fast as we can, once we meet up with the others we'll come up with some sort of plan to get the city evacuated as quickly as possible. Titans, Go!"

--

The Echrid ship had come out of the wormhole closer to earth than it had calculated, this error in navigation was fine though as it would now be able to drill into the magma of this young planet and repower itself soon. Checking its power levels the Echrid mind was pleased to see that the ship still had about fifteen percent of its power stores left, more than enough to make planet fall and drill through the weakened outer later of the planet that resided beneath the city.

It has specifically chosen this site because of the recent volcanic activity that had taken place beneath the surface of the earth, the crust was still weakened and it would be easy for the ships massive spike to penetrate all the way to magma without having to drill too far it at all. But with the landing site unprepared there could be issues that it hadn't anticipated – it was aware that there were many super humans or mutants on earth that could potentially pose a serious threat to its mission of self preservation and while only a handful of the said super humans were present in the city it would soon land on and destroy, it still was worrisome.

Perhaps though it could use the extra energy left from warping closer to earth to create extra drones though which would mitigate and threat from these super humans – yes that is what it would do – diverting ten percent of the remaining power to the creation of drone soldiers for the landing.

It would arrive at earth in about twenty four hours at this rate, plenty of time to create the solders it needed.

It had taken a gamble warping this close to the earth but knew that with its current plans the reward would be far greater than the risk.

--

Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos….

Nothing else in the world matter right now but those words…

Raven consulted with her emotions as she meditated, it seemed that affection had indeed evolved into love, which brought with it the almost equally powerful emotion, lust. The old adage 'love conquers all' seemed to be true after all as that particular emotion was more powerful than any of her other emotions including anger. While this pleased Raven greatly to know that she could now utilize her emotions more freely it also concerned her as to be honest, she had no idea what she was doing.

Counseling with the emotions in her head Raven learned that Lust was simply a part of Love and not an emotion she would be able to easily control. Though the idea of keeping Lust locked away in its own domain seemed plausible, knowledge had informed her that separating the two emotions was inadvisable and Wisdom told Raven that if she were to split up the part of love that made her attracted to her lover of choice it may adversely affect her relationship with the changeling. Raven then realized that just like everyone else in the world she would need to simply control her emotions as she let them out – easier said than done.

It was then that Raven's communicator began its incessant beeping that signaled there was something wrong, opening her eyes a little annoyed Raven crapped the small communicator from the nightstand and clicked the button on top to answeronly to see Robin on the other side of the screen.

"Raven, something really bad is happening we are on our way back meet us in the common room in five minutes." Robin said and the round little screen went black.

Great, that didn't sound good.

Standing from her bed Raven walked over to the full length mirror and looked herself over to make sure she was presentable before phasing into the common room where she was surprised to see Cyborg, Beast Boy and Jinx either sitting on the couch or standing by the window looking at the sky instead of playing Video games, something was indeed wrong.

"Robin just called me, what's going on?" She asked.

"The alien ship that Ty has been talking about just warped in closer to earth, we only have about a day to get everyone out of the city before it gets here." Cyborg said from the couch.

"We're waiting for Robin to get back so we can form some sort of plan to get everyone out of the city." Beast Boy added, "This doesn't look good."

Before Raven could form another thought however Robin, Starfire and Ty ran into the common room with a swish of the door.

"Alright listen up, the Echrid ship warped closer to earth somehow, Cyborg estimates we have two days before it lands in Jump City and we need to get everyone out of there somehow – I will coordinate with the Mayor so we can help with that – also there is an old war bunker three miles west of here we can use as a shelter when the ship lands, that way we can come out right in the think of it and hopefully surprise those aliens enough to get the time machine on the ship, got it?" Robin's leadership skills were never finer than when there was a crisis and with one as big as this on the horizon, he was at the top of his game.

After about fifteen minutes of talking with the mayor Robin reappeared and gave everyone their assignments, Beast Boy, Raven, and Ty would help ferry people to busses and emergency vehicles, Robin and Starfire would be working the freeway in traffic control, and Cyborg and Jinx would stay at the back of the evacuation line for a while making sure everyone got out.

"Alright guys, this may be the hardest thing we've ever done but I know with the militaries help we can get everyone out in time, Titans, lets go." Robin said solemnly.

All the Titans looked at each other and nodded, knowing that tonight was going to be a long night.


	9. Chapter 7: Paradox Epilogue

This is the Final installment of this story

I decided to combine the last chapter and Epilogue in the same chapter for easier reader and could get more out of the chapter, there is alot in t his chapter i could have elaborated more on had i the time / cared enough to elaborate but this was always going to be a short story, and here it is.

I'm moving on to working primarily on my original story ideas which will eventually be posted at so keep an eye out for em ;)

I have an idea for another BB/Rea fic but dont know if i will act on it yet.

so enough of me, enjoy the story.

please review.

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Flashback 7: Paradox

_______________

The Titans would look back on that night with awe, wondering how they ever pulled it off. The entire population of jump city had been evacuated in only twelve hours with the help of the Titans and now the only residents of Jump City still there were the Titans themselves, all of whom were sleeping as much as they could before the Echrid ship arrived. Each of the Titans were napping in the common room with a duffle bag of supplies and possessions they would take to the old bunker when they woke up. Robin had insisted that they all sleep together in case something else happened while they were asleep.

Raven and Ty slept on the couch with Beast Boy on the floor in front of them, the three teens had the toughest of the jobs that night, helping the panicking citizens that didn't have a way to get out of the city to transports of flying them out themselves. Robin and Starfire didn't fare much easier however, directing traffic in a massive evacuation proved to be more work than Robin had initially thought and now the two slept next to each other on the other side of the couch. Even Jinx and Cyborg were exhausted after the effort, more idiot petty thieves tried to stay behind than they thought as well, the two teens slept and charged in Cyborg's room as the metal teen would function best if he didn't have to use his emergency charger.

Yawning Ty opened his green eyes and looking around the room finding that everyone was still asleep even though the sun was high in the air. Ty rotated so he flipped off the couch and floated above the sleeping Titans landing softly in front of one of the large windows facing the sea. In the air he could see a dark red circular shaped distortion in the sky that every once in a while would flash with bright red lightning, above which he could plainly see the form of the Echrid ship as it approached – the sky in the distortion was the same as from his time and reminded him of the death and wholesale destruction he had witnessed first hand – he hugged himself as he heard someone walk softly up beside him.

"Should we be concerned about that?" Raven said as she looked at the growing distortion in the sky, but softly so she wouldn't wake the others.

"No, it's just the gravity well the Echrid's ship makes interfering with the earth the whole sky around the ship will look like that once it lands." Ty replied not taking his eyes off it.

Raven nodded and the both stood there in silence for a moment or two.

"Are you sure there is no way for me to phase into the ship so we can simply plant the time machine and escape?" Raven asked and looked down him.

"No…the ship is one massive organism, it has its own protections that prevent that." Ty said, "In the future you tried but it didn't work, you bounced out the side you started."

Raven nodded as that sounded about right, she had only been denied the ability to phase into places a few times and it always ended with a painful landing on her rear back at her starting point.

"Like I told Robin when we finished last night, when the ship lands there will be about twenty seconds where the top is opening before the soldiers can swarm and come out of it, we just have to get the flashback drive in there and activated in that time frame." Ty said as if it would all be so easy but Raven could see right through it – call it motherly instincts.

"There is something you are hiding Ty." Raven said keeping while keeping her gaze locked on him. Ty sighed, Raven wasn't even supposed to know she was a mother yet and still she held that motherly power over him that swayed him to tell the truth.

"I'm scared what will happen if we are able to defeat the Echrid." Ty admitted quietly, "If we win I won't exist anymore because my timeline will have never happened so…does it hurt to die?"

That question caught Raven off guard; she had to look away from her son and out the window to formulate some sort of answer.

"You're not going to die." Raven said.

"Then what will happen to me?" Ty looked frustrated.

"If time travel is at all similar to dimensional travel then if we win, it will create a new timeline and while your own will still exist the farther the new timeline moves from your own the…harder… it will be for you to stay in this time." It was the simplest explanation Raven could come up with and if time travel was like dimensional travel then being cut off from his own timeline would make Ty simply cease to be, and she did not want to tell her son that. Ty sighed and wandered over to the kitchen to get a glass of water while the other Titans began to stir.

"What is that in the sky!?" Beast Boy exclaimed when he walked up next to Raven and Ty had to explain again what it was, but this time to everyone. Breakfast was a somber affair passing with only a half hearted attempt at a fight about tofu verses meat, probably more to keep a sense of normality more than anything else and after breakfast, was a strategy session on what would go down when the Echrid mother ship arrived. The plan was a simple one, as simple usually worked best. Once the Echrid ship landed the Titans would emerge from their bunker and Jinx, Cyborg, Robin, Starfire and Beast Boy would distract whatever Echrid solders that emerged before the warm while Raven and Ty flew into the ship and planted the time machine. Everyone thought the plan was great except for Beast Boy, who kept quiet but felt he should be going with Raven and Ty.

"No Beast Boy, you can't fly fast enough and they will need to get out of there in a hurry, maybe even teleport out." Robin said and changed the subject back to preparations for heading to the bunker, effectively ending that discussion.

"Don't worry Beast Boy, nothing will happen to us." Raven whispered in his ear to try and calm Beast Boy down, which only a mild effect as Beast Boy made a face that he was still not happy.

All too soon though, the hour came for the Titans to leave their home behind for safer grounds and as the all piled into the T-Car with the things they wanted to take with them, Robin couldn't help making an observation.

"You never know how much something means to you until you have to leave it behind huh." Robin said, referring to the tower.

"Yeah, Jump City has been good to us I suppose." Cyborg said as he lifted a tub of supplies into the back of the T-car while the others climbed in.

"No I mean everything that's happened to us here…all the good things ya know?" Robin said as he looked over the garage at the bottom of the tower, thinking about all the happy events that took place in the tower.

"Don't worry, we built her strong it should survive the impact of that big thing landing in the city." Cyborg said confidently and Robin nodded.

"Right then." Robin turned around, "Are we ready?"

"Yeah." Cyborg said as he closed the trunk of the T-car.

As Cyborg walked around to get in the drivers seat Robin walked over to the passenger side and stopped just before he got in to talk to everyone before they left.

"Alright team, I know we have been through some hard things but this is probably going to be the hardest I won't lie to you. We've protected this city countless times and we _will_ protect it again after we win." Robin smiled confidently. "Let's get to that bunker."

The rest of the Titans grinned, boosted by newfound confidence in themselves and their plan and the T-car left the garage and followed Robin's directions as they entered the city. In front Cyborg drive with Robin next to him – the center console folded away to make the front a bench seat – and Starfire on the end while in back Ty had the window seat, with Beast Boy and Raven in the middle and Jinx on the other window. All of them were grateful for Robin's talking while directing Cyborg to the bunker as the city itself was so scarce of life it seemed as though it were haunted. Empty windows and shops stared out at the lone vehicle as they made their way to safety and Ty clutched the time machine in his lap a little tighter, he was getting nervous.

But before he could voice his concerns to Beast Boy a sudden sound broke the relative silence the Titans sat in. Looking up to the source of the noise the Titans saw that the Echrid's ship was beginning to break the atmosphere and fall to earth, a process that began with a simple cracking sound but was followed by a loud and deep '_BOOM'_ as it broke the sound barrier and began to turn into a massive fireball in the middle of the red, gravitational mess in the sky.

"Turn left here CY! The bunker is just up that alley!" Robin shouted and turned to watch the mother ships descent. The metal teen didn't need to be told twice as he drifted around the final corner and saw the bunker at the end of the alley. Racing up the street the T-car made it there in less than ten seconds as Robin entered a code that opened a heavy steel ramp on one side of the bunker.

"Drive into the bunker I'll close the ramp!" Robin ordered

"Wait!" Jinx suddenly said before the T-car entered the bunker and the car came to a screeching halt as Jinx opened her door and hopped onto the ground.

"What are you doing?!" Cyborg shouted.

"Just Drive into the bunker I'll be in there in a moment." Jinx yelled back as another '_BOOM'_ almost drowned her out.

"Jinx we don't have time for this!" TY added but Jinx was ignoring them and staring at the sky Raven could sense she was working her magic and had an idea as to what she was doing.

"Jinx is trying to get some bad luck into the aliens landing!" Raven shouted at CY, "Get into the bunker and we will come back out for her!"

"Right." Cyborg said and floored it causing the car to lurch down the ramp.

Jinx stood facing the explosions that were coming from the now red sky, she needed to time this perfect or she would end up causing more damage than if the ship were to land normally. She could sense its shape with her power as the massive organism completed its rotation so the spike was pointing earthward and at last, the ship inside the fireball completed its entrance into the atmosphere and began to rapidly fall earthward with the noise of a freight train crashing into a dynamite factory. She was vaguely aware of footsteps coming up behind her as she thrust her hands skyward, eyes and hands glowing bright pink. _Try to mess with my mind will you, well I'll show you what bad luck can do!_ Jinx thought as she felt the power around her hands – the spell was ready. With a titanic effort Jinx brought her hands down and cast the spell that blew out as many thrusters as she could locate on the massive ship before her strength was sapped from her and she fell into Cyborg's waiting arms.

"Stay with me Jinx." He said as he carried her bridal style and ran into the bunker, ducking in just before the ramp lifted again and closed, sealing the Titans in the concrete structure.

"What did you do?" Raven asked the weakened Jinx once Cyborg set her down.

"I blew up as many of the aliens control jets as I could." She grinned, "lets see it land safely _now._" She laughed weakly.

Raven nodded and returned to Beast Boy and Ty who were huddling in one corner of the bunker's main room. Robin and Starfire sat at the other side of the room near Jinx and Cyborg waiting for the coming impact.

"Hey Jinx." Cyborg said quietly garnering the pink haired girl's attention, "When we make it through this, how about we start over – that is to say…I'd like to take you out to dinner."

Jinx smiled, "I'd like that…I've missed you since H.I.V.E. was broken up."

"Me too." Cyborg smiled and hugged his friend.

Across the wall Robin and Starfire were having a similar conversation.

"Star if we make it through this I want to take you out on a date." Robin said seriously and Starfire, knowing her regular outbursts of joy would be out of place in this situation simply smiled brightly hugged him in response.

Beast Boy kneeled in between Raven and Ty with an arm around each, this was his family and he was going to protect them from whatever happened. He and Raven locked eyes and no words needed to be said for Raven to sense the love coming from him as she leaned into his embrace, and waited for the impact.

"I know this place." Ty said looking around the bunker; this was where he was born and raised, this was where he had learned to fight, this was where his family had died. Ty leaned into his teenage parents and closed his eyes; he needed to get out of this bunker as soon as the ship landed.

--

The Echrid's ship had entered the atmosphere at full speed knowing the hardened carapace it was made of could take the punishment easily and as it finished rotating so the spike was facing earthward something went wrong, all of the port and aft thrusters gave out at once, this was not good as there was no time for drones to repair any of them. In a panic the Echrid mind fired the thrusters it could all at the same time making the ship lurch dangerously to one side. Now falling at a diagonal angle the ship rotated so the working thrusters were on the other side to right itself but it was too late.

The massive plunged into the earth at a forty five degree angle travelling about nine hundred miles an hour. Shockwaves ripped through the earth as the ship's hull buckled over the stress from a sideways landing as the mother ship was split down the middle of its hull at a vertical angle spraying yellow goo this way and that, the ship it self finally came to rest against a pile of rubble from the countless buildings it had destroyed on impact and water from the ocean filled the crater as the dust settled. The Echrid's mind though wasted no time, deploying its drones to repair itself while still readying the swarm for battle.

--

The Titans huddled together while the impact quake threatened to shake the bunker from its foundations but the old building was built to withstand such punishment, and its supports did not fail. As the shaking subsided, Robin was the first on his feet running over to the door while the ground was still making noise and throwing open the heavy steel door on the other side of the bunker as well as opening the ramp again.

"Alright Titans we have a Job to do lets move!" He said and all seven teens ran out of the bunker and climbed up some rubble to the top of the building to get a better view but no amount of crime fighting would prepare them for what they saw. Jump City was completely in ruins; not a single building still stood in the once proud city and at the center of a rapidly filling crater, was a large, yellow, and very broken spacecraft that appeared to have something moving on the outside of it. The harbor would never be the same again, earth that was thrown skyward had come back down in enough volume to change the shape of the shoreline in places and reduce it in others, and Titans Tower was nothing more than one or two stories of wreckage standing on a pile of rocks and debris.

Ty latched the modified flashback drive to the back of his armor.

Raven cleared her mind of fear and doubt.

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes and cracked his neck.

Cyborg activated his extra energy packs on his back.

Jinx peeked out from behind Cyborg.

Starfire narrowed her glowing green eyes waiting to serve justice.

And Robin cracked his knuckles as the T-car drove up in front of the teens.

"Titans, GO!" He shouted and the team sprung into action. Robin Cyborg and Jinx all got in the T-Car and the massive SUV roared towards the landing site while the others took to the air.

"Those things moving on the ship are probably drones trying to repair it." Ty said, "They will be easier to kill than soldiers but we need to hurry and hope the swarm hasn't been released yet!"

As the T-car neared the crippled ship Cyborg pressed a series of buttons that made a laser cannon deploy from the roof of the vehicle, as well as a smaller laser cannon from the passenger door. "Upgrades." He grinned, "I thought they may come in useful just didn't know for what."

"Good work Cyborg." Robin said taking the controls of the side gun while Jinx moved into the turret for the top cannon.

The Echrid drones were shaped like a scarab that was the size of a car and the first ones they encountered were still about a quarter mile from the base of the ship gathering what looked like pieces of the Echrid's home to bring back and repair, but these drones were run over by the T-car as blue lasers lanced out at those that were save from its tires. Starfire flew along side the large SUV throwing starbolts at any alien she saw and every once in a while, Cyborg would fire his sonic cannon out the window. Some of the drones clumsily tried to attack the car to defend the ship but were not as agile as soldiers and met with death when they tried – Ty was right these ones were easy pickings. Soon the large, well armed car was driving circles around the bleeding ship taking pot shots at drones up the sides of it with Starfire throwing bolts at the ones higher up.

Meanwhile Ty, Raven, and a green pterodactyl climbed higher and higher until they hovered above the massive domed nose of the ship, which had yet to open.

"Why isn't it open?" Raven narrowed her eyes.

"I don't know it doesn't make sense, it's supposed to open to release its soldiers." Ty shrugged.

Beast Boy flew down to the domed surface and shifted back to his normal form after landing on it.

"There's a small hole here!" He said as Ty and Raven landed next to him, "I think I can force it open enough for us to get through."

"Beast Boy! Lookout!" Raven shouted as an Echrid soldier drone came out of an invisible split in the surface of the ship and lunged at the changeling.

Ty's reflexes were quicker than Raven's though as violet energy seemed to come out of nowhere to blow the soldier away. But another solder appeared from a different invisible slit in the dome moving to attack the green man but Beast Boy saw this one and smashed it in gorilla form but then another had appeared and was flying strait at Ty who was busy firing at a different solder that had also appeared – Raven concentrated and blew that insect into a million pieces before it could harm her son – where were all these coming from?!

It was then that she saw it, and insect pushed up a hidden flap of-skin like material and crawled out of it as it closed. The whole process took less than a second but she had seen it.

"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!" A beam of black energy shot from Raven's hands to the point where the insect had crawled out, blowing the hatch away and making a hole wide enough for all three to fit through, but the opening came at a price, more soldiers appeared coming out by the dozen now and Ty acted quickly as he flew into the hole and disappeared.

"Go into the ship!" Beast Boy shouted, "I'll hold them off as long as I can!" he then turned into a T-rex and proceeded to stomp on as many as he could at a time.

Raven hesitated a moment but knew that Ty would need her help more than Beast Boy, and so against her better judgment, she followed her son into the ship.

The inside of the Echrid's ship was like nothing she had ever seen, massive veins carrying green and yellow blood of some kind pulsed slightly against the walls that held them in place, brown and yellow tendons stretched farther back than she could see and a soldier was coming at her! Instinctively raven raised a black shield that was hit with such force it sent her flying backwards painfully into the wall. As the alien insect lunched for the kill however violet light came from the side blowing it away.

"You okay?" Ty asked as he helped her up.

"Yeah, let's get this done so we can leave." Raven said and followed her son as he led her to the opposite wall of the crevice they had found.

"The brain should be on the other side of this wall, it's too tough to blow up and you can't phase through it since its living, we need to find another way." Ty said.

"That wall is…but did you notice how fragile the top of this dome is?" asked thinking quickly and wondering why she didn't think of it before.

"Of course, I'm an idiot." Ty said and Raven followed him out of the ship to find Beast Boy struggling against a large wave of soldiers.

"Help!" he said as he shifted to a humming bird and flew as fast as he could away from the gathering swarm as Ty pulled back his hands, gathering a large amount of his spare energy in his hands and threw the violet ball at the Echrid. The ensuing explosion was great enough to not only kill the Echrid on top of the ship, but also open a sizeable whole and exposing a green, round ball the size of a semi truck within the ship – the Echrid's controlling brain was exposed. Wasting no time Ty dove into the ship before more soldiers could gather, Raven close behind and Beast Boy orbiting as a pterodactyl above.

Taking the Flashback drive off his back Ty set the timer for ten seconds and plunged it deep into the hive mind as it activated.

"Alright let's get out of here!" Raven shouted above the sound of approaching insect wings and Ty flew out with her as they fired bolts of black and violet energy at any Echrid that dared get in their way till they were clear.

But hovering above the ship Ty could tell something was wrong, it had been ten seconds and the ship was still here…looking back he noticed that drones were climbing up to the hive mind, they were going to remove the flashback drive! Not saying anything Ty turned back and charged the drones at full speed, flying strait through one and kicking the head off of the other. Looking back at the hive mind his worse fears were confirmed, the Flashback drive was active, but sputtering as its blue light became more and more dim.

"Is something wrong with it?" Raven asked as she caught up to him.

"There isn't enough power; it doesn't have enough power to warp the whole ship!" Ty yelled as he threw violet energy into a group of soldiers and drones, the explosive power destroying the aliens on impact.

"Then get the time machine, we need to fall back and come up with a new plan!" Raven said as tendrils of her black energy fended off a few drones, they couldn't stay here much longer or they were going to be overwhelmed.

"No! If we don't get rid of them now then we never will!" Ty shot back.

"Yes we will Ty, you are here and as long as you are we can change the future!" Raven looked at him in the momentary quiet while the Echrid regrouped and that was the exact moment that the answer hit Ty – the reason the Flashback drive was failing was because He couldn't exist in a world where the Echrid didn't exist. It wasn't underpowered it was because of the paradox – He was the cause of the paradox so he was the only person that could finish the time loop and change the future – which meant he was free to use his full powers to provide power to time machine.

"You need to leave." Ty said quickly, "I'm going to use my own power to turbo charge the time machine leave now or you'll go with us."

"NO." Raven said the thought of losing this boy was not an option.

"It's the only way! I created this mess and I'm the only one that can finish it!" Ty was almost frantic.

"We will find another way Ty you do not have to die!" Raven shot back and Ty could see that even though it was a younger version of his mother, that motherly bond still existed, even though she wasn't aware of it.

"Fine." Ty sighed in defeat, "Help me get the time machine out then it's stuck"

Raven nodded and walked past Ty but as she did he spoke again.

"Mom, I love you." Ty asked, catching Raven off guard and using this momentary shock to his full advantage the boy punched his mother as hard as he could in the gut ensuring the all the wind was knocked out of her then opened his hand and used his violet energy to push her upwards shooting out of the ship like a bullet.

"Get her to safety dad." He said then looked at the failing time machine, its blue light almost completely out now.

When he was old enough Raven had entrusted her son with one word, it was the word that kept his armor on his body. This word was also the one thing Raven had when she was a child, the one person who against all odds had kept her safe. And the one who believed in her when she needed it most.

_Arella_

The thought cause Ty's chrome colored rune armor to glow and fall away from his body, freeing his emotions totally and unleashing the power he had kept hidden since birth. To say the power was immense was an understatement; Ty didn't know that demonic power was this…exhilarating, this free! But his mind was focused enough to maintain enough control to step up to the Echrid's core, and place his hand on the Flashback drive.

--

Beast Boy flew circles around the top of the ship waiting for something to happen, Ty and Raven had been in there for five long minutes now, the Titans below were running out of drones to destroy and had moved to firing at the ship itself even though it didn't affect the thick carapace. He knew that he had disobeyed Robin's orders but Raven and Ty needed him there, he was sure of it. But he never expected his thoughts to be confirmed they way they did.

His pterodactyl eyes say Raven being propelled skywards by a violet shaft of light, what the heck? Flapping his mighty wings Beast Boy caught up to her just as the light gave out, banking his body in a way that he caught the unconscious girl just as she began to fall again – but why was she knocked out? What was going on in there? The changeling glided towards earth to put Raven in the care of his friends, he needed to go back for Ty.

But as he made his descent something happened he didn't expect.

The Echrid ship vibrated and audible low metallic sound and was surrounded by sparkling blue light that was getting brighter by the minute. Angling away from the ship Beast Boy made a dive for the ground as fast as he could without losing the unconscious girl from his back when all at once the light reached its brightest and began to pull inwards faster and faster until the implosion climaxed with a shock wave so strong Beast Boy and Raven were thrown to the winds by a deep earthshaking _BOOM!_ And by the time Beast Boy righted himself and made a headlong dive for Raven he saw that Starfire had come out of nowhere to catch the dark teen before she hit the ground. The dinosaur screeched happily and followed Starfire back to the rest of his friends.

"Where's Ty?" Robin asked as Beast Boy shifted to his normal form apparently forgiving him for not following orders, "And what happened to Raven?"

"I don't know, they were in the ship and Raven came flying out of it like Ty had thrown her out or something then the whole ship well…you saw it!" Beast Boy said gesturing skyward before becoming more somber as he had a realization. "I think Ty was in the ship when it disappeared."

"Oh no!" Starfire said and covered her mouth, "Is our friend Ty then…"

"He's gone…" Raven coughed, earning everyone's attention. "I wouldn't leave him behind so he knocked me out…he was going to use his powers to make the time machine work because even with the batteries, it wasn't enough."

"But that means…" Beast Boy couldn't say it; no one could say it as they didn't have to deal with the death of a team mate that often, even though they had only know him a week he had still made an impact in their lives, and saved them all from death.

But no one was hit harder than Raven, she knew that it was silly of her to feel this way about someone she had known for only a week, even though he was her son she thought it was silly. But she knew that this victory would always be bitter sweet – Ty wasn't just a son to her, he was proof that her power could be held at bay by a single solitary emotion, he was her proof that love conquered all.

And it was one of those rare times where Raven, in front of all her friends, had cried.

--

The time warp was harder to maintain than Ty thought it would be but not so hard that he couldn't do it. When the portal closed he ripped the time machine out of the mind of the Echrid and flew out of the top of the ship. Instantly he had to shield his eyes and face for that matter against the massive red orb in the sky. The sun easily took up at least half of the sky instead of being a small yellow circle – and lord it was hot! Ty quickly flew to the nearest shade he could find and huddled down in it to escabe the burning light, the sun must be in the red giant phase still but hey, calculating when or if the sun would explode, he thought that he did pretty well.

Examining the flashback drive Ty found that it warping the massive Echrid mother ship had broken the machine beyond repair – he and the Echrid were stuck here. Looking around Ty saw that everywhere around him was a barren wasteland, no water, no food, no chance for survival. Fate had dealt him a cruel hand most of his life and this was no different.

But if he was going to go down he may as well go down fighting.

He had no armor, little real control over his powers other than the ability to blow massive amounts of things up at random – which in this situation could prove useful – but other than that all he had was his skills as a fighter, and his memories of his loved ones.

Tossing the useless time machine aside Ty stood up and faced the sun, which at that very moment did a very peculiar thing. The red giant dimmed and then rapidly began to shrink faster and faster until the whole mass of the star reached a single point and a bluish shockwave of massive proportions was sent flying into the solar system. Ty blinked, he had really put the Echrid on earth right before a super nova, which meant he had only a few seconds left to live.

5

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaah!" Ty yelled at the top of his lungs, throwing his arms up into the air.

4

He had done it, he had changed the future forever. His parents and friends and everyone he loved would have a better life now.

3

Lowering his arms he still had the silly grin on his face.

2

Closing his eyes Ty raised his arms again and waited for fate to finally claim him, facing his demise head on.

1

Ty opened his eyes and was shocked by what he saw…his mother was coming towards him, and not the teenage version of Raven. _His _mom was coming but she looked different. She was dressed all in white with a long flowing robe instead of her normal Titans uniform and was grinning from ear to ear at her son.

"Mom?" he whispered.

"Yes Tyler, it is me and I am _so_ proud of you." She said sincerely, "You have helped more people than you know; countless millions owe their lives to you."

"Aww." Ty blushed, "I was just trying to help."

"And you did, you helped more than you know." Raven said, "There is someone else here who is also as proud of you as I." Raven motioned behind Tyler.

Tyler turned around and his green eyes went wide at who stood beside him, "Dad!" he exclaimed and ran into his fathers waiting arms – and it was at that moment that the earth and all on it, was destroyed.

--

________________

Flashback: Epilogue

________________

_Two years later…_

Raven stood in the common room of the new Titan's Tower looking out at the bay and thinking about everything that had happened about two years ago. The skyline of Jump City was starting to be recognizable again, though some buildings would never be rebuilt because the shape of the bay had changed. Sky scrapers were still under construction on the higher levels while smaller buildings were already up and running again, even the tower had been rebuilt in less than a year. The city was moving on from what was total destruction and giving all the credit to the Titans for saving the day again.

But it had not been the Titans who had saved the world that day; it was another unheralded person that only the Titans knew existed. Tyler Logan, Raven and Beast Boy's son had come from the future to change the past for the better, and was able to do just that, by overcharging a time machine with his own power he had taken the Echrid out of this timeline, and with luck destroyed them forever.

"Oof." Raven put a hand on her very round midsection as the baby that was within her gave a little kick to her ribs. She had married Beast Boy only a year after the events with their child from the future took place, and three months after the wedding was pregnant. For a long time she assumed it was going to be a boy that she could give a better life than her future son had lived, but when she was still in her first trimester Raven and Beast Boy were blessed with different news.

Raven was pregnant with a girl.

"Hey Honney." A familiar voice said as beast Boy walked into the common room and over to his wife, normally Raven would glare at him for using a pet name but since the other Titans weren't around she let it slide.

"Hey, your daughter thinks my ribs are a punching bag." Raven said with an 'I'm-not-amused' tone in her voice.

"Aww she's a little fighter, just like her mother." Beast Boy grinned and hugged Raven from behind, gently placing a hand on her round tummy. Raven leaned into her husband and closed her eyes, enjoying the embrace.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked.

"Yeah, I suppose." Raven said, she hated travelling in this state but this was important.

So with the help of her husband Raven waddled to the elevator and was taken down to the garage and helped into the back seat by a large green gorilla. Then the Titans were off, talking about this and that discussing strategy in dealing with crime and wondering if Raven would ever have her baby. You see, the Titans weren't on their way to any crime or big event; they were going to see a memorial that had been made for a very special person and as they entered the Jump City grave yard, the conversation ceased out of respect for those lost. Soon the T-car came to a stop and everyone piled out of the car – Raven with Beast Boy's help again – and followed Robin across the grounds.

It was then that Raven saw it near the top of the hill was a solitary headstone that was their destination and once they arrived Raven read the name that was engraved into the granite.

_**Tyler Logan**_

_**May he find the **_

_**peace he never had in life.**_

_**2009 - 2008**_

Raven couldn't help but smile as a tear came down her cheek, the years of his birth and death were even correct, to the casual onlooker this would appear to be a mistake on the headstone but all the Titans knew better. The thing that got Raven the most was the simple statement in memorial of her son – he had never known what it was like to have peace in his life, born as a child of war he had grown up fighting and had died the same way. But he had given his life to give the world the chance that he never had been given and now…Raven was sure that he had indeed found peace.

And it was in this moment of reverence for those fallen that Raven, had a contraction.

"Umm." Raven grabbed her tummy, "I hate to break up the moment but we need to go to the hospital."

"Are you sure?" Cyborg asked earning a glare from the soon-to-be mother.

"We _need_ to go to the hospital. _NOW._" Raven repeated.

"Alright! Cyborg pull the T-car closer, Starfire fly ahead to the hospital and let them know we are coming, Beast Boy get Raven to the car I'll go with Cyborg." Robin ordered, "Titans, Go!"

The Titans sprung into action, only this time it wasn't to stop a criminal or prevent the end of the world, this mission was the most important one they had embarked on – they would help bring a new life into the world.


End file.
